
1905-1908 




The subject matter of this pamphlet 
will constitute the issues of the State 
campaign preceding the primary elec¬ 
tion on August 8, 1908, and thereafter 
until the general election on Novem¬ 
ber 3d next. 'This pamphlet, there¬ 
fore, should be preserved for future 
reference by those who desire to dis¬ 
cuss intelligently the issues of the 
campaign or who are interested in the 
administration of public affairs in this 
State. 

Aside from its use as* a political 
pamphlet, it is a store-house of in¬ 
formation regarding the progress of 
the State during the last three and 
one-half years. 

The pamphlet is divided into chap¬ 
ters bearing titles appropriate to their 
contents. Each chapter is complete 
in itself. Its index furnishes an easy 
means of reference to any special in¬ 
formation desired. It has been care¬ 
fully compiled and will be found to 
contain ample information upon all 
phases of the present administration. 



















. ^tr)t:t\,i^ ■ v'A^t'v v/’“<i_t::^n. 


The 

Administration 

of 

Charles S. Denee§ 
















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PETERSON LINOTYPE CO. 

CHICAGO 

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CONTENTS 


Preface. 

Features of the Denecn Administra¬ 
tion Summarized. 

CHAPTER. 

1. State Charitable Institutions. 

II. State Civil Service Law. 

III. Investigation of the State Institutions. 

IV. State Penal Institutions. 

V. State Finances. 

VI. Business Methods. 

VII. Interest on Public Funds. 

VIII. Primary Election Law. 

IX. Special Legislation for Chicago. 

X. Insurance Department. 

XI. Factory Inspection. 

XII. Industrial Insurance Commission. 

XIII. State Mining Board. 

XIV. Board of Prison Industries. 

XV. • State Board of Health. 

XVI. State Architect. 

XVII. Geological Survey. 

XVIII. Internal Improvement Commission. 

XIX. Illinois Highway Commission. 

XX. State Game Department. 

XXI. Fish Commission. 

XXII. Live Stock Commission. 

XXIII. Pure Pood Commission. 

XXIV. Grain Inspection Department. 

XXV. State University. 

XXVI. Educational Commission. 

XXVII. National Guard. 

XXVIII. Chicago Parks. 

XXIX. Kailroad and Warehouse Commission. 

XXX. Anti-Pass and Watered Stock Legisla¬ 
tion. 

XXXI. Salary Bills. 

XXXII. Eevenue Commission. 

XXXIII. Governor Yates and Party Platforms. 

Biography. 



PREFACE. 


Governor Deneen is a candidate for renomina¬ 
tion. He is making his present campaign upon his 
record as Governor. This pamphlet contains a re¬ 
view of his administration and gives abundant 
reasons for his renomination. 

His administration has been a progressive one. 
Ancient wrongs have been righted and better laws 
and administrative methods have been established. 
Those who have profited heretofore by old abuses 
have banded together to defeat him. 

The platform upon which Governor Deneen made 
his campaign for nomination in 1904 was as fol¬ 
lows: 

The enactment of a constitutional amendment to 
enable the General Assembly to pass special laws 
for Chicago. 

A civil service law to be applied to the state 
penal and charitable institutions. 

The changing of our insane hospitals from cus¬ 
todial to curative institutions and the rehabilita¬ 
tion of the state charitable institutions. 

The enactment of a compulsory primary law. 

Governor Deneen ^s platform has been written 
into the constitution and statutes of the state. 

Plans to bring about his defeat were formulated 
about a year ago. They were as follows: 

First. The appointment of an investigating 
committee to smirch the administration in its en¬ 
forcement of the civil service law and in its admin¬ 
istration of the state charitable institutions. The 
resolution calling for the appointment of this com¬ 
mittee was passed at the instigation of the so- 
called “House organization/’ and the committee 
itself was appointed by Speaker Shurtleff, who 
was then a candidate for the governorship. 

Second. Anticipating the annulling of the sec¬ 
ond primary election law passed at the special 
session of the General Assembly beginning April 
10, 1905, and believing that the old convention 
system would prevail, the enemies of Governor 
Deneen brought out six candidates for the gov¬ 
ernorship against him. This was done in the hope 
that enough delegates could be secured by these 
candidates to prevent the GoVbrnor from securing 
a majority of the delegates, thus bringing about 
his defeat. Thereafter, these opposition candidates 
were to adjust their political equities among them¬ 
selves. • 

As was anticipated by these forces, the primary 
law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme 
Court on October 2, 1907. Thereafter, from the 
reconvening of the General Assembly on October 

1907, to January 14, 1908, not one of these six 
ndidates supported the present direct primary 




efforts now being made to recover for the state 
large sums which are believed to be due to the 
state—in short, the reactionary forces in politics 
and administration have combined in an effort to 
change the policies which have been instituted dur¬ 
ing the Deneen administration and to defeat their 
author. 

It .cannot escape the notice of the most casual 
observer that an enormous outlay of money is 
being made in all parts of the state to effect this 
end. The purpose for which this outlay is being 
made is indicated by the sources from which the 
funds are derived. It also foreshadows what can 
be expected should these efforts succeed. 

The attention of the disinterested reader is 
therefore solicited to the inspiring recital of the 
progress which has been made by the state in 
many departments during this administration and 
the obstacles which the administration has had to 
overcome in achieving it. In the facts herein 
recited will be found a complete answer to all the 
charges made against this administration. These 
facts- are submitted to the voters. The claims of 
the administration for a continuance in power rest 
entirely upon them. 



Featurt the Deneen Adminif °*‘ 
Summarized. 


Idinin- 


•age 


good 


. J^Portani legislation enacted during 
of Gravernor Deneen: ^ 

Direct priiaalry law. 

Civil service Ijlaw. 

Municipal courts for Chicago. ^ 
roads*^ Commission to en 

State Geological Commission for 
resources. 

Porestiy preserve districts provi' 

State Dental Board created. . . 

Safety appliances required on il^oads and in¬ 
spector provided for. 

Placing of children in homes providing for 
their visitation. 

^ State divided into insane ‘^t^icts and county 
insane taken over, 

Pocal option law. 

Employers required to -eport accidents to alj- 
employes. . / 

Act for the protection of men emplo;^^ 
structural work. 

Act for the regist^^ion of nurses^ , 

Coal mining. 
examined. ' 

Two-ce^i^ passeng^ 

Act requirij)« 9 ''^^fo treasurer to turn interest on 
state mpp^y over to state. 

JUtttf regulating motor vehicles. 

Act giving State Food Commission right to in 


—6-b--- 

speet all foods. 

West Park Commission authorized 


to issu( 


$3,000,000 bonds. 

Internal Improvement Commission created and 
deep waterway legislation started. 

Act providing for industrial insurance commis¬ 
sion and investigation of subject. 

Act providing for Educational Commission to 
revise all school laws. 

Legislation revising and improving insurance 
laws. 

.North Park Commission authorized to issue 
$1,000,000 bonds for small parks. 

Law authorizing City of Chicago to fix the rates 
and charges for gas and electricity for power, 
heating, lighting and other purposes. 

Negotiable instruments act. 

. Eevision of the practice act. ; 

Act to suppress mob violence. 

Act to prevent policy playing. 

Eesolution creating Commission on Occupational 

Diseases. 

Eesolution creating Commission on Protection of 
Hazardous and Dangerous Machinery. 

Vetoing of bill repealing the Juul law. 



additions and Remodcl- 
/eneen Administration. 


Name of 
Northern 
Eastern 
Central 


Insa 

Insan^ 

Insane' 


Southern Insancsonville. “ 

Western InsaneW. a 

Jjeneral Insane, Wtown. * 

Criminal Insane, VrtonVille. ^ 

School for Deaf, \rd. i 

School for Blind Renville. ^ 

Industrial Blind,' Vpnville. ^ 

Feeble-Minded, Li^o. 

Soldiers’ Home, Qul 
Soldiers’ Widows’, W. 

Eye & Ear InfirmaryVgWn. 

Girls School, GenevaVa-go. 

Boys’ School. . ’ 


Cha: 


Total 
Cost. 
125,000 • • 
126,000 
65,000 
91,000 
130,000 
100,000 
20,000 
8,000 
15.000 

55,000 

185,000 

86,000 

181.500 

160,000 


Total 


PENAL AND 



.•'A 

REFORMA 


$1,347,600 


INSTITUTIONS. 

Southern Illinois Penitential ^,„«truction 
^ and^ equipment of dininjr \construcuo ^ 

Site for new State Penitentili. 500,000 

Repairs and additions Pontia^Cjormatory 40,000 

EDUCATIONAL INST|\i jiqNS. 

State University: \ 

Auditorium Building .. \ $100,000 

Physics Laboratory . '-v..*** 250,000 

History Hill 150,000 

Cahoots and Universities: ^ ' 

®“'' Statv^Normal 
■ Co^on- 

Equipment Plant House, Sta\V' format 

University . 

Woman’s Building and Gymnasium, StaCC 

Normal School, Charleston. ioq.ooO 

Manual Arts Building and Auditorium, 

State Normal University. 110,000 

Building for Model School, Southern Nor¬ 
mal University . 50,000 

Seventh Regiment Armory. 150,000 

New Supreme Court Building . 368,000 


5,600 

2,000 

5,600 


PARKS. 

Garfield Park: 

Conservatory .$144,000.00 

Addition to'Stable.'. 14,336.58 

Boat Landing and Pavilion. 41,526.00 

Field House . 9,000.00 

Douglas Park: 

Boat Landing and Pavilion. 56,095.00 

Humboldt Park: 

Boat Landing and Pavilion. 43,887.00 

Small Park No. 1: 

Field House and Swimming Pool. 32,300.00 

Small Park No. 3: 

Field House . 46,632.00 

Swimming Pool and Dressing Rooms.. 18,242.00 
Lincoln Park: 

Bridge Across Lagoon. 65,000.00 

Submerged Service Yards. 23,584.00 

Greenhouse Storage . 3,946.00 

Bird House . 36,000.00 

Bear and Wolf Pits. 18,000.00 

Elephants’ Corral . 3,000.00 

Boat House . 12,000.00 

Viaduct and High Drive. 3,500.00 

Pumping Station, North Avenue. 5,626.00 

Pumping Station, South Pond. 3,970.00 

Stewart Park: 

Field House . 83,223.00 

Lake Shore Play Ground: 

Field House . 12,334.75 






















































-r 

} 

nances, 

Januarj^ 1, 1901...;. {’786^27 

I iiu . 

Net sSance in sKie-Vvt' 

iva^wlr^. -^O-P'-'a5,162.643.00 
^Fees??tl ’Uncoli;,.^‘?!'f®: 1 .132,414.00 

Balance d ®i(w7^. .^.”$6,295,057.00 

. 

Sinois^^rBepartn ^“'‘WV.V.V. 15o’,406.11 

teh?rit£eeH‘® 'Efol'-B? 

Total Increase .$3,380,314.85 


increased ANr extraordinary appro¬ 
priations. 

state Charitable nstitutions. ^^’r62’255 

New Seventh pgiment Armory. 1^50,000 

I^nd Second Amory and. Rifle Range.... 44.000 

Illinois Central Investigation... 150,^0 

State Normaf Buildings, Carbondale. 

Eastern Illinois Normal Building.... 

Normal School Building, Normal, Ill..:... 

New Penitentia-y Site.... • 600,000 

New Supreme! Court Bp^“6-* - - - - 368,000 


Total 


.$3,773,037 


Estimate >y Auditor of Public' Accounts 
CaoJ» Reserve Over Liabilities, July 1, 

1908 .$2,251,341 

Probable Balance in State Treasury, July 
1, 1909 ... 1,936,744 


TAXATION. 

Rate at close of Yates’ Administration, 55 cents 
on $100. 

Rate during Deneen Administration, 50 cents on 
$ 100 . 

Reduction, 9.1 per cent. 


BUSINESS METHODS. 

Auditing and investigation of accounts of all 
State Departments and Institutions and Illinois 
Central Railway. 

Amount recovered through investiga¬ 
tions and audits .$ 916,324.14 

Claims established in Supreme Court 
against auditors and treasurers, col¬ 
lected and in process of collection.. 821,000.00 
Claims against Illinois Central Railroad 

Cempany .,15,000,000.00 

Interest collected by departments and 
' institutions other than by State 

!' "^Treasurer . 64,314.02 

’ Uniform blanks for itemized expense accounts 
provided for employes. 

j Prohibiting use of railway passes by employes. 

I Careful auditing of all bills before presentation 
to Governor for approval. 


9 







































CHAPTER I. 

State Charitable Institutions* 


Eor twelve years up to 1904, under administra¬ 
tions by both great political parties, there had 
been popular unrest regarding the charitable insti¬ 
tutions. This uneasiness was caused by the politi¬ 
cal selection of employes and by the collection of 
political assessments from employes, out of the 
wages paid by the state, to create campaign 
‘‘slush’’ funds. Governor Deneen recognized this 
popular unrest. He determined to carry out 
needed improvements along true Republican lines, 
as follows: 

1. By the passage of a civil service law to place 
the employes upon a basis of merit and efficiency 
with first allegiance to the wards of the state. 

2. By modernizing the systems of local and gen¬ 
eral administration, medical, nursing, teaching and 
-business. 

3. By improvements in buildings and equipment 
looking to the greater safety of inmates from fire 
and disease, to the general well-being and comfort 
of the inmates, and to a lower cost of operation. 

Each of these improvements has been brought 
about after a struggle with the very men who 
started and carried on the farcical investigation of 
state institutions described elsewhere in this book. 

Governor Deneen during the first two years of 
his administration, as elsewhere shown, had secured 
the money for a substantial start on the costly 
work of rehabilitation. 

Appoints New Board of Charities. 


Before entering upon the work Governor Deneen 
appointed a new State Board of Charities. Poli¬ 
tics was disregarded in all selections. Dr. Frank 
Billings, of Chicago, was chosen president. Dr. 
Billings was formerly president of the American 
Medical Association and has an international repu¬ 
tation as a physician and expert in hospital con¬ 
struction and administration. He is Dean of 
Rush Medical College at Chicago and president of 
the National Association for the Study and Pre¬ 
vention of Tuberculosis. Associated with Dr. Bill¬ 
ings were Dr. Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago, a noted 
philanthropist and student of charity administra¬ 
tion; Dr. John T. McAnally of Carbondale, at the 
time of his appointment President of the Illinois 
State Medical Society; Miss Julia C. Lathrop, for 
many years identified with public charity adminis¬ 
tration in Illinois, and Mrs. Clara P. Bourland of 
Peoria, at the time of her appointment President 
of the Womans Clubs of Illinois. 


Physical Upbuilding op InstitutionsT 
Immediately after the appointment of this 
Board a conference was held between the Governo ' 


the State Board of Charities and the Superin¬ 
tendents of’ the charitable institutions, at which 
plans were outlined for the complete rehabilitation 
of the State charitable institutions. It was de¬ 
termined that the Board should supervise the work 
of investigation and report its findings to the 
Governor and the General Assembly with recom¬ 
mendations as to needed improvements and esti¬ 
mates as to the appropriations necessary to effect 
them. 

The investigation conducted by the State Board 
of Charities was most thorough. It involved not 
only a survey of the physical condition of the 
buildings and equipment of the seventeen State 
charitable institutions, which was conducted by 
the State Architect and a consulting engineer, but 
also an inquiry by the Board itself into the ad¬ 
ministration of those institutions with a view to 
the improvement of their medical, nursing, attend¬ 
ance and business management. 

The report of the State Architect showed that 
buildings and equipment of the older institutions 
were in a defective condition in respect to heat¬ 
ing, ventilation, fire protection,' electric wiring, 
plumbing, water supply and other particulars. A 
separate report was made as to each institution, 
showing repairs, equipment and new structures 
necessary to place it in a safe, healthful and 
sanitary condition, and giving an estimate of the 
cost of the work. 

The sum required aggregated $2,669,961.22. 
These figures were far beyond those anticipated 
by the Governor and the State Board of Charities. 
It had not been supposed that they would exceed 
$100,000 to $500,000. Before the recommenda- 
Vtions of the State Board of Charities were pre- 
fcS. seated to the Appropriations Committees of the 
^ General Assembly, therefore, the appropriation 
estimates were revised and cut down to what was 
deemed the lowest figure consistent with the press¬ 
ing necessities of the institutions. In this work of 
revision and curtailment of estimates the State 
Board of Charities sought the advice of the super¬ 
intendent of each institution as to what items in 
the State Architect’s recommendations could best 
be spared in the institution under his charge. 
With the information thus gathered a general re¬ 
vision of estimates finally brought the extraordi¬ 
nary appropriations recommended for physical re¬ 
habilitation down to $637,380. 

The estimates submitted to the General Assem¬ 
bly were felt to be the lowest that could be made 
wdth a due regard to the safety, health and com¬ 
fort of the inmates. Nevertheless, the General 
Assembly provided instead of the $637,380 re¬ 
quested the sum of $398,156, scarcely more than 
half the minimum recommended by the State 
Board of Charities. 

With the appropriations provided the work of 
rehabilitation was entered upon and has proceeded 
as rapidly as the magnitude of the work and 
• funds provided would permit. New fire escapes 
'**nd fire fighting apparatus have been provided, 


10 


new plnm'bing supplied and new systems of heat- 
ing, ligtting and ventilation have been installed. 

Medical and Nursing Service. 

Equally radical changes were recommended by 
the Board of Charities in medical and nursing 
administration, especially in the insane group of 
institutions, including the Asylum for Feeble- 
Minded Children at Lincoln. The changes re¬ 
quired to modernize the medical and nursing sys¬ 
tem alone would fill a separate volume, so great 
was the need and so detailed the changes recom¬ 
mended. All recommendations of the Board not 
requiring legislative assistance have been carried 
out. In so far as appropriatioi^s permit those re¬ 
quiring money have been and are being carried 
out. Some of these medical and nursing and other 
improvements include: 

1. The establishment at Kankakee of the State 
Psychopathic Institute for the education of State 
hospital physicians in mental and nervous diseases, 
their symptoms, methods of treatment and cure; 
and further, for scientific investigation into the 
causes of insanity looking to the discovery of 
cures for forms now incurable. The physicians 
employed in the State institutions are required to 
attend this institute from six weeks to three 
months each year. 

2. A complete reorganization of medical ad¬ 
ministration in hospitals for the insane, with uni¬ 
form records and with laboratories in each, look¬ 
ing to the most humane and scientific systems of 
cure and care. 

3. The water treatment for the insane, which 
reduces to a minimum mechanical restraint and 
drug stupefaction, which do not cure, and which 
substitutes gentle methods that help nature cure 
curable forms and reduce the sufitering in the in¬ 
curable cases. 

4. Industrial re-education for the chronic in¬ 
sane, which abolishes the curse of idleness, fits 
many cases for discharge from'" the hospital and 
saves the State money. 

5o Compulsory training schools for nurses and 
attendants, at which nurses and attendants are 
required to pursue courses of study from two to 
four years, with conferring of certificates and di¬ 
plomas upon graduates therefrom. 

6. New buildings of the pure hospital type, for 
the treatment of new cases of insanity and of in¬ 
sane persons suffering from other forms of dis¬ 
ease, such as pneumonia, typhoid fever, etc. 

7. The segregation of consumptives in quar¬ 
ters especially adapted to such patients, to pro¬ 
tect those not having consumption from infection, 
and to cure or improve those suffering from the 
‘ ^ great white plague. ’ ^ 

8. Steps legalized to take all the insane out 
of county almshouses and give them modern treat¬ 
ment and care in well equipped State hospitals. 

9. Providing for the care of soldiers’ wives 
with their husbands at the Soldiers and Sailors’ 
Home at Quincy. 


U 


dO. ProTiding for the care of almshoiiise cbil- 
(dren and orphans, not the orphans of soldiers and 
eailors, at the Soldiers and Sailors’ Horae at 
Quincy. 

State Visitation of Children. 

A new department which has been placed under 
the supervision of the State Board of Charities 
is the Department of Visitation of Children, of 
which Rev. Charles Virden was appointed State 
j Agent April 1, 1906. To the State Agent and his 
assistants the law assigns the duty of investigat¬ 
ing institutions and homes in which children have 
been placed under orders of courts. The num¬ 
ber of children so placed up to January 1, 1908, 
was 3,760; 2,144 Visits had been made and reports 
thereof filed with the department. A large num¬ 
ber of orphanages have been inspected, and about 
500 cases of crimes against children have been 
taken under investigation by the department. For 
carrying on this work an appropriation of $4,500 
was provided by the General Assembly. The law 
requires that each child shall be visited at least 
once during each year. There are now approxi¬ 
mately 4^00 children to be visited, and the rate 
of increase is from 1,200 to 1,600 per year. With 
the meager appropriation furnished a strict com¬ 
pliance with the law is impossible; but the work 
is of such importance from a humanitarian point 
of view that more ample provision should be made 
for its continuance and extension in the future. 

The above brief review of the work of the pres¬ 
ent administration in connection with the State 
charitable institutions is far from complete. It is, 
nevertheless, sufficient to show the baseless char¬ 
acter of the charge that the service in the^e insti¬ 
tutions has deteriorated. Such a charge is con¬ 
tradicted not only by what has been shown, but 
by every particle of honest evidence upon the sub¬ 
ject and by plain common sense. It was the 
dominance of politics in the management of these 
institutions under the old system and the ascen¬ 
dancy of political activity over merit and fitness 
as a recommendation for appointment to the 
public service with resulting inefficiency, which led 
to the passage of the present civil service law. 
The results have justified the high expectations of 
the men who advocated and the Legislature which 
enacted it. The improvement over the old method 
has been marked. No one contends, of course, 
that Civil Service, or any other kind of service, 
will eliminate accidents or negligence from our 
State institutions. W’hat is claimed for it is that 
when accidents occur and negligence is shown the 
case can be dealt with directly, effectively and 
strictly on its merits, uninfluenced by political or 
any other improper considerations. 




12 




CHAPTER II. 

State Civil Service Law. 

In Governor Deneen’s inaugural message of 
^lanuary ii, 1905, lie recommended the enactment 
of a law placing the State charitable and penal 
institutions under civil service. The 44th General 
Assembly enacted the present civil service law, 
in effect November 1, 1905. The law placed 
under civil service rules the State charitable in¬ 
stitutions only, covering all- employes therein ex¬ 
cept the superintendent, chief clerk, stenographer 
and treasurer. The number of State employes 
thus transferred from a political to a merit basis 
of appointment to and continuance in the public 
service is at the present time 2,269, 

Since the' law went into effect, these employes 
of the State have been absolutely removed from 
political influence. Their appointment can now 
be secured only through a successful civil service 
examination. Of these there have been held 981 
in 41 cities and towns; 7,465 persons have applied 
for examination; 3,727 appointments have been 
made; 2,427 have resigned, and 711 have been dis¬ 
charged for various causes, such as disobedience, 
negligence, cruelty, drunkenness, etc. ■ 

Among the resulting improvements in the serv¬ 
ice is the abolition of political assessments. Pro¬ 
motions, like appointments, have been made on 
merit, the higher positions being invariably filled 
from those in the service who have demonstrated 
their fitness for promotion. The hospital tramp 
has been eliminated by prohibiting employes from 
going from institution to institution, and the in¬ 
creased security of employment has attracted to 
the service a better class of persons. 

In connection with the introduction of civil 
service rules in the administration of the' state 
charitable institutions, it must be remembered 
that when Governor Peneen assumed office in 
January, 1905, the custom of levying assessments 
upon the employes of the state institutions was 
in full vigor. Not only was this system inde¬ 
fensible on moral grounds as an unwarranted and 
unlawful taking of public money from those who 
had earned it by those who had no lawful title 
to it, but it was equally indefensible on political 
grounds. No other single cause was so gfeat a 
fomenter of partisan and factional strife as the 
creation of the vast political corruption fund 
W'hich these assessments made possible. 

The collection of these assessments was an un¬ 
derhand and secret process and for this reason 
it has never been known with certainty just how 
large a fund they yielded. Nevertheless, the peo¬ 
ple were not without some means of approximat¬ 
ing its magnitude. The total salaries paid to 
state employes are about $1,500,000 annually, and 
as five per cent was the rate of assessment levied, 


IS 


the fund raised in this manner has been estimated 
at from $40,000 to $75,000 per year, or from 
$160,000 to $300,000 in the course of a single ad¬ 
ministration. It may be safely assumed that under 
the pressure of political campaigns the largest 
possible sum was extorted. 

In his campaign for the governorship. Governor 
Deneen said that if he were nominated and elected 
the system of political assessments would cease*. 
When he assumed office, it ceased at once. 


r 


CHAPTEE III. 

Investigation of the State Institutions. 

Politics was the basis of the recent investiga¬ 
tion conducted by a House committee appointed 
by Speaker Shurtleff, unfriendly to Governor De- 
neen since the struggle over the primary election 
law, which Mr. Shurtleff openly opposed. By pre¬ 
tense the committee was non-partisan, three Ke- 
publicans and three Democrats. But the Kepubli- 
cans were anti-Deneen men. By parading un¬ 
avoidable accidents as ‘^scandals” and “horrors’’ 
an attempt was made to make the people believe 
that the Governor was maintaining brutal at¬ 
tendants and should not be honored with popular 
confidence. 

This was the means used by the committee to 
cast reflection upon Governor Deneen at a time 
when his brave and ambitious plans to rescue 
the institutions from wreckage and inefficiency 
were nearing fulfillment. The idea was to ignore 
what had been done by Governor Deneen, to show 
,up the remnants of the wreckage and inefficiency 
he had inherited as evidences of his own bad faith 
and incompetency, and to bring about a new sys¬ 
tem of institution management, with unlimited 
possibilities of graft, as the result of the “scan¬ 
dal” and “horror” excitement caused. 

A little later in this chapter the methods of 
this committee and items creditable to Governor 
Deneen, omitted by the committee, will be taken 
up. 

False Charges and the Facts. 

First let us have a brief statement of the im¬ 
portant charges made against the administration 
by the committee and the facts in each case stated 
in connection therewith: 

1st Charge. —That the committee had “not 
had the encouragement, support and aid of the 
Executive in seeking to learn the true condition 
of our State institutions.” 

Answer. —Miss Julia C. Lathrop, member of 
the Beard of Charities, and William C. Graves, 
its Executive Officer, on January 16th, tendered 
the services of the Board to the committee, stat¬ 
ing their willingness “by every possible means 
to make evident” the “exact status and condition” 
of the State charitable institutions and to “con¬ 
ceal nothing which had any bearing upon any 
good or unfortunate aspects which they may pre¬ 
sent to the public and to the patrons.” In addi¬ 
tion, Governor Deneen personally instructed Mr. 
Graves and Mr. William B. Moulton and Mr. J. C. 
Mason, President and Secretary, respectively, of 
the State Civil Service Commission, to accompany 
the committee and offer every facility their ex¬ 
pert knowledge and office records afforded to aid 
the committee in getting at the truth regardless 


15 


of consequences. All these efforts to aid the 
committee were repelled. 

2nd Charge. —That the Injuries to Vergine Jes¬ 
sup, Frank Giroux and Minnie Sterritz show a 
“lamentable lack in efficiency in management” at 
the Lincoln institution. Two other cases of in¬ 
jury, those of Walter Kaak and John Morthland, 
are deemed by the committee to have been un- 
preventable. The facts in the three former cases 
were as follows: 

Answer. — a. Vergine Jessup was said to have 
been bitten by rats. This statement is in con- 
liict with the diagnosis of the physician who first 
treated the case at the institution hospital im¬ 
mediately after the accident occurred and long 
before an investigation of the institution was 
thought of. This physician stated that the in¬ 
fection probably arose from a scratch of the 
finger nails. No case of rat bite had ever occurred 
in the institution before the injury to Virgene 
Jessup and none has occurred since. Such in¬ 
fections as in this ease are common in and out 
of institutions. For instance, Eockwell King, one 
of the wealthy, influential citizens of Chicago, 
died from a slight cut on his finger inflicted acci¬ 
dentally by himself with his pen knife while he 
was pruning shrubbery in his private grounds. 

h. Frank Giroux was seriously burned on the 
neck on an insufficiently protected radiator, in 
place in January, 1901, during the absence from 
the room for twenty minutes, contrary to the rules, 
of the attendant in charge. The boy was an epi¬ 
leptic and should not have been left by the at¬ 
tendant, No one could have foreseen that the 
attendant would be negligent in his duty and 
deliberately disobey the rules of the institution. 
If the State had provided an epileptic colony, as 
previously recommended, this boy would not have 
been sent fo an institution unfltted for the care 
of epileptics. Recognizing the necessity of all 
possible preventives of injuries to epileptics, Dr. 
Hardt was putting wire screens over all radiators 
in wards, taking up cottage by cottage, and the 
ward where the Giroux boy was kept had not 
been reached at the time of the accident. The • 
attendant, who had been in the service of the 
institution for six years, refused to explain and 
resigned. 

c. Minnie Sterritz received burns while being 
bathed by a feeble-minded child who undertook 
the service without permission and without super¬ 
vision during the absence, contrary to the rules, 
of the attendant on the ward. The occurrence 
was inexcusable and the employe was immediately 
discharged after an investigation by the State 
Board of Charities and the State Civil Service 
Commission. 

3rd’ Charge. —There is want of co-ordination 
among the employes of the (Lincoln) institution 
and a lack of discipline which has been greatly 
to its detriment. 

Answer. —When Dr. Hardt took charge, he 
found the employes running the institution. There 
was practically no discipline. He has co-prdinated 


Iho (Icpartraentg. Ho haa enforced bo much diS' 
. cipline that employes were loud in their com¬ 
plaints of it. The testimony on which the com¬ 
mittee bases the, above charge had its inspira¬ 
tion in the minds of those who had felt Dr. 
liardt’s disciplinary hand. Ex-Trnstee elohn Wag- 
ner, whom the committee held in such high esteem, 
criticizes Dr. Hardt as rather a severe disciplin¬ 
arian, thus contradicting the finding of the com¬ 
mittee. 

4th Charge. —The business administration of 
the institution cannot be commended. Citing as 
an instance the purchase of coal and stating that 
the price is “50 cents to 60 cents per ton higher 
than that at which coal can be purchased on the 
open market.” No particular “open market” is 
specified. 

Answer. —Coal at Lincoln has been purehase<l 
during this administration at a lower price than 
in years past and below the price paid by. local 
merchants and manufacturing concerns using large 
(juantities of coal in the city of Lincoln. During 
the past year the institution has saved nearly 
$4,000 in coal. 

5th Charge.— That the food at Lincoln was 
much better under the previous administration 
than the present administration, and that the fa¬ 
vorite^ method of economizing is to economize in 
the direction of quantity and quality of food for 
the inmates. 

Answer. —The records of the institution show 
that both in quantity and quality the food sup¬ 
plied under Dr. Hardt is superior to that fur¬ 
nished under the previous administration.. The 
total amount expended for food during 1906 was 
$65,392; in 1907, $70,511. The average number 
of inmates for the year 1906 was 1,293 and in 
1907, 1,201, or 92 fewer than 1906. The per 
capita expended for food in 1906 under Dr. C. B. 
Taylor was $50.55, and under Dr. Hardt in 1907, 
$58.66, or $8.11 more for each patient under Dr. 
Hardt than under Dr. Taylor. The same food is 
supplied to the superintendent and employes as 
to inmates. 

6th Charge.— That Ex-Trustee John Wagner 
impressed the committee with honesty, integrity 
and sincerity when he testified to the efforts he 
had made, fruitlessly, to remedy alleged wrongs 
existing in the food, care, and treatment of in¬ 
mates as well as wrongs in the business manage¬ 
ment. 

Answer. —The unreliability, to put it mildly, 
of Mr. Wagner is shown in detail on .pages 24-25, 
26 and 27 of the Governor’s special message to 
the legislature, under date of May 23rd last. The 
Governor gave Mr. Wagner ample opportunity to 
be heard regarding his quarrel with Dr. Hardt be¬ 
cause of progressive business methods introduced 
by the new superintendent. In the presence of 
William C. Graves and Dr. Hardt Mr. Wagner 
complained of two cases but admitted there was 
no cause of complaint against Dr. Hardt in re¬ 
gard to either of them and stated that, in his 
opinion, Dr. Hardt was a good superintendent, 


though rather a severe disciplinarian, a good 
physician and good business man and devoted to 
his work. The Governor had called Mr. Wagner 
in to request his resignation and at this inter¬ 
view his resignation was presented to and accepted 
by the Governor. 

7th Charge. —That William Hamlin, a prisoner 
at the State Eeformatory at Pontiac, died as the 
result of brutal treatment by Eeformatory guards. 

Answer.— After a full investigation the Ee¬ 
formatory Board found that Hamlin had come to 
his death from surgical pneumonia superinduced 
by injuries sustained in a fall in an attempt to 
commit suicide and that the injury which proved 
fatal was self inflicted. The Board censured 
the conduct of the guards who had charge of Ham¬ 
lin immediately after his injury and recommended 
their dismissal from the service, which followed 
immediately. Hamlin had planned to escape. A 
file, a chisel and a piece of gas pipe two feet 
long were found under the mattress in his cell. 
He confessed that it was his intention to escape 
and to kill the night cell house keeper with the 
gas pipe if it became necessary. The dismissal of 
the guards was due to a lack of judgment in 
dealing with and relieving the physical injury and 
suffering caused to Hamlin by his attempt to com¬ 
mit suicide. In this the guards violated the rules 
of the institution. Neither the administration 
nor the authorities of the institution could have 
foreseen that the guards would violate the rules 
as was done in this case. All that could be done 
in the way of punishment by the institution au¬ 
thorities was done. 

8th Charge. —That the salary of trustees of the 
Eeformatory included money for expenses and 
that the practice of rendering monthly expense 
accounts was wrong. 

Answer. —In the Governor’s message to the 
legislature on May 23rd, pages 29-30, is a state¬ 
ment by the Et. Eev. Samuel Fallows, D.D., Presi¬ 
dent of the Board of Managers, stating in de¬ 
tail historically how the practice of rendering ex¬ 
pense accounts came about. When the salary of 
trustees of the Eeformatory was fixed at $1,200, 
as penitentiary boards had been allowed their ex¬ 
penses for over a quarter of a century, no ques¬ 
tion was raised that expenses should be paid in 
addition to this $1,200. The Eeformatory Man¬ 
agers followed the custom of the penitentiary 
trustees and the business custom that employes of 
a firm with a fixed salary doing its work in various 
directions, involving traveling expenses, etc., are 
allowed such expenses in excess of salary paid, 
and appropriations have been regularly made by 
the General Assembly on that theory. However, 
the question raised is under consideration by the 
Attorney General and he will determine the course 
to be pursued in the future'. 

9th Charge.— The real value of bids or the 
making of contracts for coal at Pontiac is ques¬ 
tioned by the committee because of a transfer 
of a contract from the . Prairie State Coal Com¬ 
pany to the Lincoln-Springfield Coal Company. 


18 


AnsWjKR. —^The transier was made only after 
the Lineoln-Springfieid Goal Company had agreed 
to the terms of the original contract made by 
the Prairie State Coal and Coke' Company and 
had given a bond in the sum of $5,000. No loss 
was involved to the State in the matter of the 
transfer of the contract. It was a special in¬ 
stance and in no way affects the value of coal 
bids and coal contracts of the Pontiac institution 
in other cases. 

10th Charge. —That the output of the Overall 
Department at Pontiac, established by the Board 
of Prison Industries, is sold almost entirely to 
the Sterling Manufacturing Company, whereas 
the ^^utput is supposed to be sold on the open 
market. 

Answer. —The product of the Overall Depart¬ 
ment is placed for sale on the open market to any 
purchaser who offers. It is true that the company 
mentioned takes nearly the entire output of the 
department but no contract'nor agreement in re¬ 
gard to the sale of the product exists between 
the Reformatory and the Sterling Manufacturing 
Company. 

llTH Charge. —That no interest has been paid 
on the funds of the State Reformatory at Pontiac. 

Answer. —When Governor Deneen came into 
office only one, the smallest, of the twenty char¬ 
itable, correctional and penal institutions was re¬ 
ceiving interest on public funds—the St. Charles 
School for Boys. Prior to Governor Deneen’s ad-, 
ministration, the amount of interest received by 
this institution was $614.38. Since Governor De¬ 
neen’s administration up to April 1, 1908, the 
institution has received $1,285.16. Efforts have 
been made to obtain interest from banks for all 
of the twenty charitable and correctional institu¬ 
tions with the result that depositories of 19 of 
the institutions, including the Reformatory, now 
pay interest, the only institution not paying in¬ 
terest being the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, whose 
daily balances are very small. Already $54,314 in 
interest has accrued to the different State institu¬ 
tions and departments. This amount does not in¬ 
clude any part of the $91,766 which was col¬ 
lected by Hon. John I’. Smulski, State Treasurer, 
on balances belonging to the State during the 
first year of his incumbency. 

12th Charge. —That the Board of Managers 
and Superintendent of the Reformatory have been 
negligent in efforts to secure legislation to re¬ 
move hardened and incorrigible criminals from 
the Reformatory. 

Answer. —Both the present and previous ad¬ 
ministrations have insisted that some provision , 
should be made for the removal from Pontiac 
of incorrigible inmates. The subject is fully 
treated in the Biennial Report of 1904-1906, of 
the State Reformatory, on page 4, under the title 
“Discipline.” Manifestly the Investigating Com¬ 
mittee did not take the trouble to consult the 
reports of the Reformatory. 

13th Charge. —That there were irregularities in 
letting the kitchen contract for the Southern Peni¬ 
tentiary at Chester. 

19 


Answer. —In order that a very considerable 
portion of the work of constructing a new dining 
hall and kitchen might be done by convicts it was 
decided to build on the percentage basis. There 
were three bidders. After considering all phases 
of these bids, taking into consideration the trans¬ 
portation charges on workmen, implements and 
tools, the contract was awarded to V. Jobst & Sons 
of Peoria, as they under all circumstances were 
the lowest and best bidders. The criticism of th© 
committee was based upon one small paragraph in 
the contract and not on the contract considered in 
its entirety, which refutes the charge. 

14tii Charge. —The methods of conducting an 
ejectment suit by the Southern Penitentiary 
.against the Illinois Southern Eailroad Company 
without calling upon the regularly elected State 
officials is worthy of criticism. 

Answer. —^Under a quit claim deed the Illinois 
Southern Railroad claimed to own the right of 
way across the grounds of the Southern Illinois 
Penitentiary. The authorities of the penitentiary 
desired to build a switch across the tracks of this 
company to connect with the St. Louis, Iron Moun¬ 
tain and Southern Railroad, in order to avoid the 
payment of a $4 per car switching charge to the 
former road. The road refusing permission, the 
matter was presented to the Railroad and Ware¬ 
house Commission and authority to build the 
switch was granted by them. Under date of May 
19, 1906, Attorney General Stead, in response to 
a letter written to him by Commissioner Rufus C. 
Neely of Marion, a prison commissioner, rendered 
an opinion that the quit claim deed which is dated 
December 31, 1896, by which the Illinois Southern 
Railroad Company claimed to own its right of way 
across the prison grounds was a nullity. There¬ 
upon Warden Smith employed Judge H. Clay Hor¬ 
ner, a prominent attorney at Chester, to bring suit 
in ejectment against the said railroad. The action 
of the warden was concurred in by the commis¬ 
sioners. The suit was brought and won. The 
commissioners did. not eject the defendant from 
the prison premises, because the railroad then 
offered no further objection to the construction of 
the switch, which was the cause of bringing the 
suit. The railroad itself is of manifest advantage 
to the institution. A switch was promptly put in 
and the prime object of the commissioners in 
bringing the suit was achieved. 

15th Charge. —The electric battery or ‘‘hum¬ 
ming bird^^ punishment is a figment of imagina¬ 
tion, but was a potent factor in subduing prison¬ 
ers at one time, and its presence “is liable to 
tempt its use for purposes of punishment.^’ 

Answer. —Shocking stories of torture by an 
electric instrument known as the “humming bird’* 
were given wide publicity by Harry Grifdth, a 
former convict who had served two terms |it Joliet 
Penitentiary, two terms at Jefferson City, Mo., 
Penitentiary, and two terms at Chester Peniten¬ 
tiary. The public were led to believe that the 
punishment inflicted upon the prisoners of th© 


20 


Southern Penitentiary wa» brutal and shocking, 
sometimes resulting in death. No such method of 
punishment is or has been in vogue at the peni¬ 
tentiary. There is a well equipped, modern hospi¬ 
tal on the grounds. A part of its medical appa¬ 
ratus is an electric battery sometimes used in the 
treatment of muscular rheumatism, but never used 
as a means of punishment. The committee feels 
that the presence of this battery ^‘is liable to 
tempt its use for purposes of punishment.^’ This 
opinion is unfounded and ridiculous. 

16th Charge. —That the overalls, suits and hose 
furnished from the Southern Penitentiary to the 
Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home are of inferior quality, 
cost more than goods formerly purchased on the 
open market, never fit, are merely thrown to¬ 
gether and that at one time 100 suits were re¬ 
turned from Normal. 

Answer. —The cloth for the suits is purchased 
at the Urbana Woolen Mills, Urbana, Ohio, at 
$1.10 a yard. It is selected by Superintendent 
McCauley of the Soldiers ’ Orphans ’ Home. At all 
times the clothing has been well made. The price 
of shirts, $3.50 per dozen; shirts, size 15 and 
above, which are large shirts, $5.00 per dozen; 
knee pant suits, $3.50 per dozen; long pant suits,^ 
$4.50 per dozen; extra long pants, $1.75 per pair. 
The goods in the. shirts cost from 7% cents to 10 
cents per yard. The returned suits were returned 
from a requisition calling for suits by ages and 
not by measures. Since the return requisitions 
have been made by measurement for each boy and 
there has been no further trouble.. 

17th Charge. —It is insinuated that the selec¬ 
tion of the prison physician at the Southern Illi¬ 
nois Penitentiary was prompted solely by political 
considerations. 

Answer. —The present physician is a well 
known and successful practitioner in Southern 
Illinois. He was strongly endorsed by leading 
business men and professional men in his own and 
adjacent counties. He was appointed by Governor 
Cullom and served under Dr. Pollock and Dr. El¬ 
kins, physicians in charge of the Southern Jllinois 
Penitentiary, and in 1880-1 was himself acting 
physician. 

18th Charge.— That duplicate expenses have 
been charged by commissioners in connection with 
visits to the Southern Penitentiary and the Hospi¬ 
tal for the Criminal Insane, made at the same 
time. 

Ans'wer. —The Board of Commissioners Of the 
Southern Penitentiary are also the trustees of the 
Asylum for Insane Criminals. The two institu¬ 
tions adjoin. It is the custom of the Board to 
charge the expenses incurred for each regular 
monthly meeting to the Asylum for Insane Crimi¬ 
nals. The expenses for other meetings and for 
miscellaneous expenses are charged against the 
Southern Penitentiary. There is nothing in the 
testimony which justifies the statements that the 
Board charges a duplicate expense account. 

19th Charge.—T hat peculiar methods are em- 


ployed by the Board of Prison Industries at the 
Southern Illinois Penitentiary, referring particu¬ 
larly to the chain plant. 

Answer. —The chain plant, formerly located in 
the State Penitentiary at Frankfort, Ky., ceased 
doing business. The Southern Penitentiary se¬ 
cured the plant for a rental of $30 per month and 
an option to purchase the outfit for $6,000. The 
plant has been in operation one year under the 
rental scheme. The Southern Penitentiary has 
sole control of the operation of the plant, pays all 
salaries, purchases all supplies, sells the finished 
product and collects all moneys. No person or 
corporation has a monopoly of the output. Any¬ 
one who desires may purchase chains. The com¬ 
mittee does not state in what respect this is pe¬ 
culiar. 

20th Charge. —John W. Hill, Chairman of the 
Committee, in a statement given to the public 
press expressed the opinion that $1,000,000 per 
annum could be saved in the purchase of supplies 
for the charitable institutions if the present 
* ‘ wasteful ’ ^ methods were abandoned and a better 
system of purchase inaugurated. 

Answer. —If the amount expended for salaries 
and wages, for building, repairs, etc., for the ex¬ 
penses of trustees and officials and for articles 
manufactured by the State penitentiaries and re¬ 
formatory which must be purchased under law by 
the State charitable institutions was deducted 
from the total ordinary expenses of the State 
charitable institutions the amount left is the total 
amount available for the purchase of supplies upon 
the open marked This amount for the fiscal year 
ending June 30th, 1907, is $1,333,334. Deducting 
Mr. HilPs $1,000,000 saving from this amount 
there is left $333,334. As the population of these 
institutions ^ inmates and employes is 15,642 the 
yearly per capita for their maintenance and sus¬ 
tenance, according to Mr. Hill’s idea, would be 
$21.31; $1.78 per month; 41 cents per week; 6 
cents per day. Mr. Hill’s proposition is ridicu¬ 
lous. No wasteful methods have been pointed out 
by the committee, and, of course, no remedies have 
been sifggested. 

21sT Charge. —Extensive criticism in regard to 
the purchase ©f coal. 

Answer. —The following table shows the saving 
on coal purchased at eight large institutions for 
the first three fiscal years of the Deneen adminis¬ 
tration, 1905-7, compared with the last three years 
of the, Yates administration, 1902-3-4: 

Present Preceding 
adminls- adminls- 

Institutions— tration. tratlon. Saving. 

Northern Hospital, Elgin. .$'63,527.81 $ 69,383.63 $ 5,855.82 
Eastern Hospital, Kanka¬ 
kee . 163,157.56 187,006.82 23,849.2S 

Southern Hospital, Anna.. 46,908.73 52,153.78 5,245.05 

Criminal Insane, Chester.. 2,812.05 3,302.61 490.56 

School for Blind, Jackson- 

sonville . 11,013.92 12,473.42 1,459.50 

Soldiers’ Home, Quincy... -45,254.84 61,857.60 6,602.76 

State Reformatory, Pon¬ 
tiac . 66,637.84 79,102.99 12,465.15 

Penitentiary, Chester..... 77,090.03 81,662.01 4,471.98 

Total . $476,402.78 $536,842.86 $60,440.08 

82 








TMs is a saving of $60,440'oii coal in the eight 
institutions for the first three fiscal years of the 
Deneen administration over the last three years 
of the Yates administration. A comparison of the 
per capita cost of coal in each of the charitable, 
reformatory and penal institutions in operation 
in 1904, the last year of the Yates administration, 
with the per capita cost during the fiscal year 
1907, under Deneen, shows a net saving of $70,746. 

The saving at Kankakee did not commence until 
at the suggestion of Governor Deneen the existing 
coal contract was cancelled in 1905, after an in¬ 
vestigation of the coal account. After the can¬ 
cellation the total annual cost of coal, including 
freight, dropped from $71,169.58 for the fiscal 
year 1905 to $46,886.03 in 1906, and $45,101.95 in 
1907. This is a saving of $24,283.55 for 1906, 
and $26,067.63 for 1907, compared with 1905. 
This rate of saving has been maintained. It is a 
slash of one-third the expense. 

22d Charge. —That the committee is not in 
favor of civil service as at present administered, 
but is heartily in favor of civil service honestly 
and conscientiously administered in harmony with 
the spirit and letter of the law. 

Answer. —John W% Hill, Chairman of the Com¬ 
mittee,^ as the fruits of the investigation, intro¬ 
duced and advocated the passage of the Board of 
Control bill. House Bill 948, which invalidated the 
civil service law. 

23d Charge. —That the position of food in¬ 
spector at Kankakee with the knowledge and con¬ 
nivance of the Civil Service Commission was abol¬ 
ished and the incumbent, Mr. Case, was let out of 
the service. 

Answer. —The position has not been abolished. 
Mr. Case was discharged at the instance of B. E. 
Sunny, Presi^dent of the Board of Trustees, who 
made the charge that Mr, Case had degenerated 
into an ^‘institutional loafer. 

24th Charge. —That laxity in the enforcement 
of the civil service law is found in the appoint¬ 
ment of Dr. H. Douglas Singer, as Director of the 
• State Psychopathic Institute at Kankakee. 

Answer. —The committee states it has no criti¬ 
cism to make of Dr. Singer, but considers his 
appointment an obvious evasion of the law, be¬ 
cause Dr. Miller alone passed the examination and 
was a resident of Illinois, whereas Dr. Singer was 
an alien who had not taken the examination at all. 
Under the law in an original entrance examination 
the superintendent may make a temporary appoint-' 
ment until the commission can certify three names. 
As only one man passed the examination the com¬ 
mission was unable to certify three names as pro¬ 
vided by law. Dr. Greene thereupon acting under 
the law temporarily appointed Dr. Singer, who is 
one of the two foremost men in his line in 
America. 

Other samples of charges of violation and 
evasion of the civil service law made by the 
committee will not be treated here for lack of 
space, but the most charitable view which can bo 






23 


laKen of the matter is that the Investigating com¬ 
mittee has not read the civil service law. (For a 
full account of these, charges and the law appli¬ 
cable thereto see Governor Deneen^s message of 
May 23d, pages 60-66.) 

25th Charge. —The insinuations that appoint¬ 
ments made to the charitable institutions * ‘ before 
the civil service law could go into effect and with¬ 
out taking the civil service examination ’ ’ was that 
such persons were appointed to create a political 
organization. 

Answer, —An examination of the number so 
employed shows that but twenty-eight persons so 
recommended by Governor Deneen are still in the 
service of the State. There are 2,265 persons em¬ 
ployed in the State charitable institutions under 
the civil service law. Twenty-eight persons would 
have a hard time constituting a political machine. 
It is almost needless to add that these twenty- 
eight and all others employed in the seventeen 
State charitable institutions are removed from 
politics or political activity. 

It may be further stated that the committee 
does not lodge a charge of any kind against any 
one of these twenty-eight employes. The method 
in this case is in harmony with the policy of the 
investigation, which .was to make general charges 
without referring to the facts or connecting them 
vdth any person or thing which would permit the 
making of any reply thereto. 

Methods of the Committee. 

The purpose of the committee to secure evidence 
defamatory to the institutions was illustrated at 
the outset by its effort to secure prejudiced wit¬ 
nesses in the form of discharged employes, of 
whom 711 have been discharged since the civil 
service law went into effect. A letter similar to 
the following was sent to superintendents and to 
the Civil Service Commission: 

February 26, 1908. 

Captain William Somerville, Superintendent Soldiers 
and Sailors’ Home, Quincy, Ill. 

Dear Sir; The Investigating Committee, appointed 
by the State Legislature, of which I have the honor* 
of being the chairman, requests of you a full and 
complete report of all employes, attendants, physi¬ 
cians, etc., who have been discharged or have resigned 
from the institution of which you are the head during 
the years 1905, 1906 and 1907. 

The time of the committee is somewhat limited and 
desire to complete their work before the May meeting 
of the Legislature. An immediate compliance with 
this request is therefore desireu. Very truly yours, 

John W. Hill, 

JWH.M. Chairman Investigating Committee. 

P. S. Give the then and present addresses in each 
case, as far as you know. 

The following superintendents received letters 
similar to the foregoing, the dates being February 
26 and 28, 1908: 

Mrs. Flo Jamison Miller, Matron, Soldiers’ Widows’ 
Home, Wilmington; James B. Smith, Warden, South¬ 
ern Illinois Penitentia^, Menard; W. L. Athon, Su¬ 
perintendent, Illinois Southern Hospital for the In¬ 
sane, Anna; James L. Greene, Superintendent, Illi¬ 
nois Eastern Hospital for Insane, Kankakee; R. N. 
McCauley, Superintendent, Illinois Soldiers’ Or¬ 
phans' Home, Normal; W. E. Songer, Superintend-- 


24 


eat, Illinois Asylum for. Insane Criminals, Monara. 

The character of the investigation may be 
further illustrated by the following letter ad¬ 
dressed by Hon. John J. McLaughlin to Super¬ 
intendent Hardt: 

Forty-fifth Genera! Assembly, 

State of Illinois, 

House of Representatives. 

John J. McLaughlin, 

Nineteenth District, 

1551 West Monroe St., Chicago. 

Chicago, Jan. 27, 1908. 

Dr. Hardt, Lincoln, III. 

Dear Doctor: I am taking the liberty of enclosing 
you card of a concern of which 1 am personally in¬ 
terested. We are desirous and anxious to furnish 
your institution with anything and everything that 
they are in need of in the building material line. Of 
course, we expect to do this on lines of competition, 
meeting any and all competitors as to quality, prices 
and service. 

Won’t you kindly let the name of our company be 
placed on the list of buyers to whom you mall pro¬ 
posals for estimates? Also, would like to have you 
say a word to your purchasing agent in behalf of our 
concern. 

I probably will meet you at the institution this 
w'eek, as I have been appointed on the committee that 
is investigating the institution. 

Hoping to meet you personally and that you will 
not forget this company when you are in the market 
to purchase materials, I am, yours truly, 

(Signed) .John J. McLaughlin. 

Enel. (Business card of the McLaughlin Building 
Material Company.) 

Mr. McLaughlin wrote similar letters to Dr. 
George A, Zeller, Superintendent of the General 
Hospital for the Insane at South Bartonville, on 
January 27, 1908, and to the following: 

Soldiers’ Widows’ Home, Wilmington, February 11, 
1908. 

Illinois Northern Hospital for the Insane, Febru¬ 
ary 11, 1908. 

Industrial Home for the Blind, February 11, 1908. 

Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, February 11, 1908. 

Illinois School for the Blind, February 18, 1908. 

Illinois Western Hospital for the Insane, February 
18, 1908. 

St. Charles School for Boys, February 19, 1908. 

The State Architect, February 3, 1908. 

These letters were written on stationery of the 
Illinois General Assembly, Mr. McLaughlin’s name 
appearing thereon. (See page 4 of the Governor’s 
message of May 23rd.) 

In the conduct of the investigation itself, no 
cross-examination of witnesses was permitted; no 
counsel allowed to the superintendents of the in¬ 
stitutions under investigation; witnesses whose 
testimony was favorable to the institutions were 
not permitted to testify. Is it to be wondered 
at that, with such rules of procedure, the commit¬ 
tee was able to secure damaging testimony from 
discharged employes, disgruntled ex-oflicials and 
other biased persons, whose tongues wagged freely 
under the easy consciousness that their testimony, 
no matter how false, was never to be subjected 
to the test of cross-examination? 

The method of the investigation was shameless. 
The committee, accompanied by a retinue of 
newspaper reporters, journeyed from institution 
to institution procuring false statements, scan- 


li 


(lalous reports and vicious rumors regarding their 
operation. These were given to the public press 
without the slightest attempt to determine their 
authenticity. In brief, the committee devoted 
itself to the work of defaming the State institu¬ 
tions by the publication of unfounded charges 
which the method of its investigation was de¬ 
signed to give the institutions no opportunity to 
refute. 

A single instance will serve to show this clearly. 
At the investigation of the Asylum for Feeble 
Minded Children at Lincoln, a list of 15 wit¬ 
nesses, including the housekeeper and assistant 
matrons who were most familiar with the prep¬ 
aration and distribution of the food at the in¬ 
stitution and who were ready to testify in refuta¬ 
tion of the testimony alleging the bad quality and 
meager quantity of the food supplied to the in¬ 
mates, was handed to the Investigating Commit¬ 
tee. The list whs furnished to the committee 
during an afternoon session at Lincoln. The 
chairman announced that the witnesses would be 
heard at 9 o’clock the following morning. When 
these witnesses presented themselves at the hour 
appointed, it was learned that the committee had 
left on an early morning train for Pontiac, never 
to resume the examination of witnesses at Lin¬ 
coln. In addition to the 15, there were 25 addi¬ 
tional witnesses on hand, making 40 witnesses 
unheard for that institution. 

The occurrence of accidents in institutions of 
this character, even when due to physical defects 
and negligent employes, is deplorable, and no ad¬ 
ministration has put forth greater effort than 
that of Governor Deneen to prevent their occur¬ 
rence. 

His is the first administration which has re¬ 
quired reports of all accidents, no matter how 
trivial, occurring in the State institutions. But 
two other states require this. This policy was 
adopted with a view to localizing and fixing the 
responsibility and of learning the percentage of 
accidents, so as to determine the relative effi¬ 
ciency of Illinois institutions compared with simi¬ 
lar institutions in other states. Such comparisons, 
which were conspicuously avoided by the investi¬ 
gating committee, redound greatly to the credit 
of Illinois institutions. Take, for illustration, 
the record of the Asylum for Feeble Minded Chil¬ 
dren, in the administration of which the investi¬ 
gating committee has found most to criticize. 
Instead of being, as one would suppose from the 
report of the investigating committee, a poorly 
administered institution, it now is one of the best 
institutions of its kind in the country. The 
model institution for epileptics in the United 
States is the Craig Colony at Sonyea, New York. 
The records of that institution show during the 
last year 798 accidents to inmates, of which 185 
were burns. The records of the Lincoln institu¬ 
tion show 125 accidents of all kinds, of which 22 
were bums. The population of Sonyea is smaller 
than that of Lincoln. 

In the nature of things, accidents cannot be 


2 $ 


entirely eliminated. AH that oaa be don© is to 
reduce the chance of accidents to the minimum 
and so conduct the institutions as to fix the 
responsibility for such accidents wherever pos¬ 
sible. Under the present administration this has 
been done in every instance. 

Praise by Competent Persons. 

Convincing testimony of the excellence of pres¬ 
ent conditions in this institution is found in the 
following extracts, the first from a letter of Dr. 
W. H. C. Smith, of Godfrey, Illinois, an expert 
of 30 years’ experience in the care of feeble¬ 
minded children, and for 21 years intimately ac¬ 
quainted with the Lincoln institution, former 
President of the National Society for the study of 
Feeble-minded Children and now President of the 
Illinois State Conference of .Charities, addressed 
to the State Board of Charities: 

I have visited the institution four times during Dr. 
Hardt’s administration of the past year and unhesi¬ 
tatingly state that, were I unfortunate enough to 
have an afflicted child of my own, I would gladly 
place it at the Lincoln institution with no fear what¬ 
ever as to proper treatment. * • ♦ i conceive, 

also, an apparent willingness on the part of the in¬ 
vestigation and certain newspapers to publish in a 
somewhat distorted form matter that must cast dis¬ 
credit upon the really fair name of my adopted State, 
and for what end? To my certain knowledge our 
State management of Lincoln under the spoils sys¬ 
tem had placed this institution at the bottom of the 
list among American institutions of like character for 
six or eight years, and to my certain knowledge no 
man of experience and proven capacity in the United 
States would have anything to do with it, valuing his 
professional reputation too highly. I feel thus sure, 
for I was in a position to recommend such and made 
a still hunt [at the request of Governor Deneen] 
with the above knowledge thus obtained as a result. 
Accidents will happen under the most careful man¬ 
agement, and in my experience I can parallel any I 
have 'thus far read in the testimony. The simple 
elements of confidence and loyalty, so necessary to the 
proper conduct of any large interest, are apparently 
lacking, and without them any man is rendered pow¬ 
erless for even fair work. No man living could be 
held responsible for such a tremendous multiplicity 
of detail as exists in this highly complex and special¬ 
ized Institution, with its necessarily impossible classi¬ 
fication. Think of an unclassified school of 1,400 
children, and yet this is Dr. Hardt and his trustees’ 
problem through no fault of his or theirs. 

It must be remembered that this institution 
was intended for the care, treatment and educa¬ 
tion of teachable children of feeble mind. In the 
absence of an epileptic colony, however, not less 
than 400 epileptics have been crowded into this 
institution; also 400 unimprovable feeble minded 
children and 60 crippled children. The institu¬ 
tion has become a repository of all classes of 
defectives not fitted for admission to the hos¬ 
pitals for the insane. 

A second letter, from Caroline C. Lutz, . Presi¬ 
dent of the Lincoln Woman’s Club, dated March 
3, 1908: 

Allow me to thank you for your acknowledgment 
of the letter issued by our club bearing on the present 
legislative investigation. I would like to add a few 
W'ords to explain what is only implied In the letter. 
The chief object in sending it was to comfort and re¬ 
assure the tortured friends of the inmates who nat¬ 
urally would conclude from newspaper reports that 
the asylum here was shamefully administered; sec- 


ondly, we desired to defend the Institution from an 
attack which we then suspected to be political, but 
which we now know to be maliciously and deliber¬ 
ately so. 

Dr. Hardt was installed a year ago by Governo® 
Deneen, with the pledge that he should be supported 
in a forlorn endeavor to rescue the institution from 
depths of infamy. * ♦ ♦ This reform is under 

way, but a gubernatorial election approaching, the 
administration (State) is attacked in this manner; 
also a personal grudge against Dr. Hardt must be 
paid by local politicians. This is the casus belli and 
probably simply and solely the cause of the Investi¬ 
gation, 

The complaint as to the food is a farce, a joke be¬ 
neath notice, as this legislative committee is dealing 
with it. 

A third letter, from the Episcopal Eector at 
Lincoln, Rev. Father W. N. Wyckoff, published 
in “The Living Church,” February 22, 1908: 

To the Editor of the Living Church: Apropos your 
article in issue of February 1, I have had occasion to 
observe the workings of the Asylum for Feeble Minded 
Children at Lincoln, Ill. The institution had been 
used as a political asset and the morale was decidedly 
poor. The present Superintendent, Dr. Hardt, who is 
vindicating the good judgment of the State Board of 
Charities, has made many changes, and naturally an¬ 
tagonized the laissez fuire school of politicians, who 
dearly love a political asset. The institution cannot 
in a day be rehabilitated, and those on the ground, 
knowing the past conditions and the present* realize 
the great improvement. Even the State Legislature's 
committee brought this out, though so manifestly 
hostile, that the opportunity of testifying was denied 
to a number of persons who were qualified to give 
evidence as to the conditions for a considerable term 
of years. When the politicians have no hand and the 
State Board of Charities has full control our State 
institutions may stand some chance of fair adminis¬ 
tration. 

As to the general efficiency of the present ad¬ 
ministration of the State Charitable Institutions, 
the resolutions recently adopted by medical so¬ 
cieties of the State are of importance. 

Illinois Medical Society Endorsement. 

The following is a part of the proceedings of 
the House of delegates at the annual meeting of 
the Illinois State Medical Society, in Peoria, May 
19-21, 1908, after the investigation had been 
completed, the report of the committee submitted 
to the General Assembly and the legislature had 
adjourned: 

Whereas, His Excellency, the Governor, in ap¬ 
pointing the present Board of Charities, placed upon 
the members thereof no political restraints whatso¬ 
ever, and 

Whereas, The Board has labored earnestly and un¬ 
selfishly to elevate and improve the standard of our 
State Charitable Institutions, and the care and at¬ 
tention given the unfortunate inmates thereof, and 

Whereas, The Governor has encouraged this work 
of the Board and facilitated it whenever possible, 
therefore 

Be it resolved, That the Illinois State Medical 
Society, ,by its House of Delegates, hereby most heart¬ 
ily approves the good work done by the Board of 
Charities and commends the Governor for the earnest 
support which he has given the Board In this work. 

In support of the motion. Dr. James W. Pettit, 
of Ottawa (elected President of the Society at the 
same meeting), spoke as follows: 

“I think, under ordinary circumstances, this So¬ 
ciety should refrain 'tfrom taking part in partisan 
politics. In this instance, however, I think it is not 


only eminently proper, but we should be derelict In 
our duty and untrue to our profession of loyalty to 
the State Institutions, If we do not endorse the action 
of the Governor and his State Board of Charities for 
what they have done to lift these institutions out of 
the mire of politics; therefore, I am heartily in favor 
of the resolutions and hope they will pass without a 
dissenting voice. In this instance it is our duty to go 
into politics in order to get the institutions out of 
politics. 

“The evils which have grown up In the State chari¬ 
table institutions are the result of the spoils system, 
which has been In vogue for many years, but whose 
baneful influence has been felt more particularly 
during the three administrations preceding that of 
Governor Deneen. I have been more or less familiar 
with the condition of affairs in these institutions for 
years and have realized that we were sowing the 
wind and must reap the whirlwind. The membership 
of the Illinois State Medical Society generally have 
recognized not only the evils which exist but the 
causes thereof, and year after year we have been pass¬ 
ing resolutions condemning the spoils system and 
advocating civil service reform. Governor Deneen, 
true to his ante-election pledges, has undertaken to 
reform the institutions. His first step was the ap¬ 
pointment of a State Board of Charities whose integ¬ 
rity and ability cannot be questioned. 

“As was to be expected, when they set to work to 
clean up these institutions a howl went up from the 
spoils politicians and in their frantic endeavor to 
preserve the old order of things they have turned 
upon the Governor and his Board of Charities charg¬ 
ing them with ail the evils for which they, and they 
alone, are responsible. It is the last expiring gasp 
of the spoilsman, and it is not to be expected that 
they will yield their rich plunder without resistance. 
Under the circumstances it is the duty of the medical 
profession of this State, who always stand for better 
things, to uphold the hands of the Governor and his 
State Board of Charities in the stupendous work 
which they have undertaken. Therefore, I hope 
every one present will not only vote for the resolu¬ 
tions but make this act more emphatic by rallying to 
the support of Governor Deneen and his Board during 
the approaching campaign.” 

In further support of the motion Dr. Frank P. 
Norbury, Superintendent of the Maplewood Sani¬ 
tarium at Jacksonville, and former president of 
the State Conference of Charities, spoke as fol¬ 
lows: . " 0 

Mr. President: I wish to endorse this resolution 
because it is a duty which we owe to the State Board 
of Charities as well as the present State administra¬ 
tion. It is a resolution non-partisan and strictly in 
keeping with the high sense of duty with which the 
State Board of Charities have discharged their obli¬ 
gations. I know from personal knowledge derived 
from experience in the State service in institution 
practice; from a personal knowledge derived from ob- 
Kervation of the internal conditions of State institu¬ 
tions in my own home city, Jacksonville: from per¬ 
sonal knowledge as a member of the Examining Board 
of the Civil Service Commission, of the personnel of 
the members in the medical service of the State, that 
our State institutions are and the service therein Is 
upon a footing superior in fact to that of any time 
in the history of State Charities in Illinois. 

Further, I know that this constructive improve¬ 
ment has come about through the indefatigable and 
earnest endeavors of the present administration of 
the State. 

We as citizens, as well as physicians, should lend 
our endorsement to this great movement, which is 
wholly for the betterment of this great State, which 
alas ! in recent years has experienced a retrogressive 
wave, in a service that, at one time, stood on equal 
footing with other progressive States in the Union. 

I take pleasure in endorsing this resolution and 
this House of Delegates should consider it in the light 
of a duty which we owe» in a nonpolitical way, to tho 


state and to the State Charities, represented In this 
service, which our State Board of Charities supervise. 

The resolution was adopted unanimously by a 
rising vote. 

Endorsement by Chicago Doctors. 

The following resolution was adopted on March 
13th last, at a joint meeting of the Chicago Med¬ 
ical Society and the Physicians’ Club of Chicago: 

Resolved, That the attendance upon the meeting 
of the Physicians’ Club of Chicago and the Chicago 
Medical Society endorse heartily the splendid work of 
the present Illinois Board of Charities and Correc¬ 
tions. We herewith express our perfect confidence in 
the Board and pledge our earnest and enthusiastic 
support to the efforts it is making to correct the evil 
conditions which may e^st in the charitable and 
penal institutions of the State. 

New System of Public Charity Administration. 

The State Board of Charities had completed all 
but one of its fundamental recommendations to 
modernize the State charitable institutions when 
the recent investigating committee was appointed. 
The. one fundamental remaining was a new sys¬ 
tem of business administration for the charitable 
institutions. The House committee, without mak¬ 
ing a studious inquiry into various, systems of 
administration, recommended that a paid Board 
of Control supplant the present system of local 
trustees and a State Board of Charities. The 
Senate wisely refused to consider a bill creating a 
Board of Control drawn by Speaker Shurtlelf, and 
passed through the House under whip and spur, 
on the ground that it was hasty legislation on a 
very important matter. The Senate followed the 
recommendations of the Board of Charities as 
stated in an exhaustive report to the Governor 
under date of May 1st last. In this report the 
Board of Charities analyzed various systems of 
administration, presented written advice in twenty- 
six exhibits from authoritative sources in various 
parts of America and recommended that the whole 
matter of administration go over to the next 
General Assembly to which a special commission 
of business men, arranged for by the Board of 
Charities months before the legislative committee, 
was appointed, would make definite recommenda¬ 
tions, embracing the best points in various sys¬ 
tems. The net recommendation of the investigat¬ 
ing committee was for the immediate passage of 
a Board of Control Bill. As stated, this failed. 
In its useless service the committee expended $22,- 
000 in money, not to mention the sorrow they 
caused wantonly to thousands of parents and 
relatives of the wards of the State. 

Go.vernor Deneen on May 23d last submitted 
an exhaustive message to the General Assembly, 
comprising over 200 pages, in reference to the 
character of this investigation. Any one caring 
to acquire full information as to the details of 
the investigation can procure this message by 
writing to the Secretary of State or to the Gov¬ 
ernor. 


61 


CHAPTER IV. 

State Penal Institutions. 

Since the establishment of the Board of Prison 
Industries, a very great improvement has taken 
place in the administration of the penal institu¬ 
tions. During the time intervening between the 
abolition of the old contract labor system and the 
establishment of the present prison industry sys¬ 
tem, health conditions in the penitentiaries rap¬ 
idly deteriorated and tubercular cases increased 
to an alarming extent. 

In view of health conditions formerly prevailing 
in these institutions. Governor Deneen during a 
conference with the State Board of Public Chari¬ 
ties and the superintendents of the several state 
charitable institutions, made the suggestion that 
a physical survey of the state penitentiary at 
Joliet be made with a view to effecting such im¬ 
provements as were necessary to render it sani¬ 
tary and healthful. This surv^ey was made by 
the state architect and the conditions found by 
him led to the appropriation of $500,000 by the 
last General Assembly for the purchase of a site 
for a new penitentiary ’ to cost when completed 
approximately $3,000,000. It has been deter¬ 
mined that the new site shall be part farm and 
part quarry property, affording ample outdoor 
emplyoment. suitable for all seasons of the year. 

At this institution and the Southern Illinois 
Penitentiary have been recently established new 
stone crushers for the manufacture of road-mak¬ 
ing material, an industry which, while affording 
employment for a large number of prisoners, in¬ 
terferes to the smallest possible extent with the 
product of free labor. The system of supplying 
this material free to local road authorities is 
treated elsewhere under the title of “State High¬ 
way Commission,” whilst other branches of work 
in these institutions are treated under the title 
of “Board of Prison Industries.” 

At the State Reformatory at Pontiac notable 
improvement has been made in conditions. Within 
the last two years manual training schools have 
been established consisting of foundry, forge shop, 
machine shop, wood working shop, together with 
clay modeling, raffia work, sloyd work, mat weav¬ 
ing, etc. Instructors in these departments are 
skilled mechanics and men of excellent character, 
well qualified to fill such positions. The manual 
training school and the trade school of this in¬ 
stitution furnish to the inmates abundance of 
healthful work and at the same time fit them 
for the following of a useful occupation after 
they leave the Reformatory. An extensive printing 
plant has also been established, in which the 
greater part of the printing for other state insti¬ 
tutions is done. 

The Reformatory school for the teaching of the 


comraon school branches of education, has also 
been much improved under the present adminis¬ 
tration by the employment of high grade teachers. 
Fourteen teachers are at present employed, all of 
whom, with one exception, have had either normal 
school or college training. 

Two other interesting features of the Keforma- 
tory work are the Junior Republic and the Young 
Men’s Christian Association. The Junior Repub¬ 
lic is a unique scheme in reformatory work. The 
most notable characteristics of the government of 
this society is its conscientiousness. It is carried 
on by the boys themselves along lines teaching 
good sound business principles and respect for 
law and order. It possesses executive, legis¬ 
lative and judicial departments. So efficacious for 
good has the influences of this branch of the re¬ 
formatory work been that it is a rare thing for 
a member of the Junior Republic to violate his 
parole when released from the institution. Self- 
respect is promoted, habits of obedience to law 
and conscientious performance of duty have been 
cultivated through the agency of this Republic 
and many boys have been thus restored to the 
outside world fitted to take an honorable and use¬ 
ful place in society. 

The same may be said of the work of the Re>- 
formatory Young Men’s Christian Association, 
which has a membership of about 600. In this 
particular branch of reformatory work, the 
Illinois institution leads the country, as it is the 
only penal institution in which such an organiza¬ 
tion has been established. 

The good influences of these agencies are ap¬ 
parent from the Reformatory statistics, which show 
that at least 75 per cent of the inmates who leave 
the Reformatory become good and useful citizens- 
The other 25 per cent are either habitual crim¬ 
inals or those who are not amenable to reforma¬ 
tory influences, who should be cared for at other 
penal institutions. 

In this connection allusion may be made to the 
Hamlin case, recently made' the subject of an 
investigation by a legislative committee and pre¬ 
viously by the . Board of Managers of the State* 
Reformatory. The evidence plainly showed that 
Hamlin belonged to the class ■ of boys last men¬ 
tioned. Though young, and by reason of his 
youth scarcely to be classed with habitual crim¬ 
inals, he W'as nevertheless one of those “who are 
not amenable to reformatory influences, who 
should be cared for at other penal institutions.’* 
The Hamlin case is reviewed as Charge No. 7 
under the chapter entitled “Investigation of the 
estate Institutions,” 


CHAPTEE V. 


State Finances. 


The State finances are in excellent condition. 
As shown by Governor Deneen’s biennial mes¬ 
sage, on January 1, 1907, there was in the State 
treasury a net balance of $4,342,750.20, or $2,284,- 
750.77 more than the balance on hand two years 
before. Net, balances on hand in the State treas¬ 
ury on January 1 for the ten years preceding 
1907 were: 


1905 

1903 

1901 

1899 

1897 


$ 2 , 057 , 999.43 

2 , 812 , 315.49 

1 , 820 , 272.53 

1 , 786 , 605.27 

175 , 487.03 


The balance on hand January 1, 1907, was, in 
fact, more than twice as much as was ever before 
in the State treasury at the beginning of the legis¬ 
lative fiscal year, excepting in 1903, when the bal¬ 
ance was $2,812,315.49, . which the balance on 
hand January 1, 1907, exceeded by $1,530,434.71. 

On July 1, 1907, the beginning of the fiscal 
year, when appropriations become available, the 
net balance on hp-'d in the State treasury*was 
$5,162,643, and there was due the State treasury 
uncollected taxes, fees and other items amounting 
to $1,132,414, making an aggregav. balance due 
to and in the State treasury of $6,295,057. 

This excellent condition of' the State finances 
has been made a subject of criticism in the cam¬ 
paign speeches of Governor Yates, who charges 
that money is being heaped up in the public treas¬ 
ury in order that it may be loaned to political 
favorites. The charge is without foundation. As 
appears, from the foregoing, the following balances 
were on hand in the public treasury at the begin¬ 
ning of the two biennial periods of Governor 
Yates’ administration: 


1901 

1903 


$ 1 , 820 , 272.53 

2 , 812 , 315.49 


On August 28, 1907, the State Auditor of Public 
Accounts issued a statement which showed an 
estimated cash reserve over liabilities on July 1, 
1908, of $2,251,341 and a probable balance in the 
State treasury July 1, 1909, of $1,936,744. Since 
the issuance of this statement by the auditor ap¬ 
propriations have been made by the General As¬ 
sembly at its several adjourned sessions amount¬ 
ing to $140,883, leaving the probable balance in 
the State treasury on July 1, 1909, $1,795,861. 
This constitutes no more than a reasonable work¬ 
ing balance and is less by over a million dollars 
than was found in the State treasury at the be¬ 
ginning of the 1903 biennial period of Governor 
Yates ’ administration. 

The large increase in the balance on hand in 
the State treasury July 1, 1907, is accounted for 
in part as follows: 









rncreased receipts from taxes. 

Airlounts withheld by departments un¬ 
der Governor Yates, collected by the 

present administration .. 

Increased receipts from Illinois Central 

R. R. Co. 

Increased earnings by ' State Depart¬ 
ments . 

Inheritance tax . 

Miscellaneous items . 


n.529,866.32 

776,355.13 

150,406.11 


321,287.43 

454,398.61 

175,936.58 


Total 


$3,389,314.85 


Deducting from this total the sum due to in¬ 
creased receipts from taxes, $1,539,865.32, we have 
an increase from sources other than taxation of 
$1,859,449.53. 


Department and Institution Auditor. 

A considerable part of the latter amount con¬ 
sists of moneys recovered from various State de¬ 
partments and other sources by an officer first 
appointed under the present administration at 
Governor Deneen’s suggestion. The circumstances 
which led to the creation of this office and the 
appointment of this officer are of interest and may 
be briefly set forth. The constitution. Article V., 
Section 20, provides that “An account shall be 
kept by the officers of the executive department, 
and of all the public institutions of the State, of 
all moneys received or disbursed by them, sever¬ 
ally, from all sources, and for every service per¬ 
formed, and a semi-annual report thereof be made 
to the Governor, under oath; and any officer who 
makes a false report shall be guilty of perjury 
and punished accordingly.’’ 

It is also provided in each appropriation bill 
appropriating money for the use of institutions 
and departments of whose administrative boards 
or superintendents the Governor has the appointing 
power, that money shall be payable only on bills 
approved by the Governor. 

When Governor Deneen came into office the cer¬ 
tifying by the Governor to the correctness of such 
accounts and reports was a merely formal act. 
The present Governor, however, was unwilling to 
assume the responsibility of certifying to accounts 
of the correctness of which he was not informed. 
He accordingly brought the matter to the atten¬ 
tion of the General Assembly and at his sugges¬ 
tion that body made an appropriation enabling the 
Governor to appoint a Department and Institution 
Auditor. This officer, under the direction of the 
Governor, examines the accounts of the State in¬ 
stitutions and departments for the purpose of 
ascertaining their correctness before they receive 
the Governor’s approval. 

Since his appointment this officer has been en¬ 
gaged in the investigation of the accounts of 
various State institutions and departments, of 
various State boards and commissions, of the Illi¬ 
nois Central Railroad Company and of other public 
agencies connected with the State Government. A 
more detailed account of these investigations will 
be found in this pamphlet under the title “Busi¬ 
ness Methods.” These investigations have led to 
the recovery by the State from various depart- 










ments and institutions of sums of monoy aggre¬ 
gating $916,324.14 and have led to the estahUsh- 
ment by the Supreme Court of the right of the 
State to the recovery of other sums aggregating 
$321,000 as due from former State officers. Of 
this amount $56,477.28 has already been restored 
to the public treasury and suits for the recovery 
of further amounts are pending. The investiga¬ 
tions have also led to the institution of a suit 
against the Illinois Central Railroad Company for 
the recovery of amounts charged to be due to the 
State under its contract with the railroad com¬ 
pany, aggregating $15,000,000. 

This is the officer who has been characterized 
by Governor Yates in his speeches as a spy. 
Against the work of this officer Governor Yates 
in his speech at Macomb uttered the following 
protest: 

‘^Our ancestors came to this country to escape 
the spy. This was founded as a land of liberty. 
This is not Russia, but today we have in Illinois 
a system that is brutal and cruel. Against this I 
protest. If there is to be any Republican Party 
left in this State these things must stop. ’ ’ 

Governor Deneen in his speech at Macomb made 
this reply: 

“What do the Republican voters of Illinois 
think of the spectacle of a candidate for the nomi¬ 
nation of Governor on the Republican ticket de¬ 
claring publicly and solemnly that the auditing 
of accounts of public officers will ruin the Re¬ 
publican Party.” 

Governor Yates' protest i^ harmful as well as 
ridiculous, because it can have but one meaning. 
It is an intimation to the followers of Governor 
Yates that if he is elected the cruel and brutal 
auditing of public accounts by the Governor will 
cease. One would think that an explanation were 
due to the public from Governor Yates in con¬ 
nection with this matter. The amounts recovered 
and the claims under adjudication through the 
efforts of Governor Deneen were due the State 
during the Yates' administration. It is difficult 
to understand upon what ground the former Gov¬ 
ernor can justify his intemperate attacks upon 
Governor Deneen for performing his plain duty 
in endeavoring to restore these funds to the public 
treasury. The placing of public institutions and 
their accounts upon a business basis has heretofore 
not been regarded as cruel and, brutal. 

Increased Appropriations. 

Governor Yates' comments upon the State 
finances and his charges of extravagant expendi¬ 
ture of the public money under the present admin¬ 
istration are without foundation. He states that 
the increase of appropriations under this admin¬ 
istration amount to nearly four million dollars. 
He does not complain about any specific appro¬ 
priation, but attempts to mislead the public by 
vague and general charges. The details of the 
increased appropriations are a sufficient answer. 
They are in part as follows: 


Increased appropriations for the rehabili¬ 
tations of State charitable institutions. .51,438,782 
increased appropriations for University of 

Illinois . 862,265 

Special appropriations for 7th Regiment 

Armory . 150,000 

Special appropriation land for 2d Regiment 

Armory and Rifle Range. 44,000 

Special appropriation Illinois Central in¬ 
vestigation . 160,000 

Special appropriation for a State Normal 

building at Carbondale... 60,000 

Special appropriation for an Eastern Illi¬ 
nois Normal building at Charleston. 100,000 

Special appropriation for a Normal School 

at Normal .. 110,000 

Special appropriation for site for new Pen¬ 
itentiary . 500,000 

Special appropriation for new Supreme 
Court building . 285,000 

Total .53.690,037 


Nor does Governor Yates pay the slightest at¬ 
tention to the increased expenditure occasioned by 
the growth of the public business. To illustrate: 
According to the statistics gathered by the State 
Board of Charities there were in the State hospi¬ 
tals for the insane on July 1st, 1905, 8,482 in¬ 
mates; on January 1st, 1908, 9,743 inmates; an 
increase of 1,261 in three years; an average in¬ 
crease per year of 420, or for four years—one 
administration—1,680. 

The per capita cost for the maintenance of each 
inmate is $145 per year. The cost of providing 
additional buildings and equipment per inmate is 
$400. This gives; 


Cost of increased capacity and equipment 
for additional'420 patients per year for a 

period of four yea^.5 672,000 

Cost of maintenance of 1,680 inmates for 
four years . 609,000 


Total .51,281,000 

No fair comparison can be made between ad¬ 
ministrations when such obvious items of increase 
as these are ignored. 

Moreover, the 45th General Assembly passed a 
law providing that the State shall take over all 
the insane in county poorhouses and provide for 
their care in State hospitals. This will mean an 
addition of about 2,600 insane patients to those 
now in already over-crowded State hospitals and 
in addition to the normal net increase of new 
eases. The carrying out of this law will involve 
a large additional expenditure of public money. 
The equipment of institutions for 2,600 patients 
at $400 per capita and their maintenance for a 
single year at $145 per capita would aggregate 
$1,417,000. No State administration which carries 
out the provisions of this law can escape a largely 
increased expenditure. 

The same lack of fairness characterizes Gov¬ 
ernor Yates’ comparison of the State tax rate 
under his own wdth that under the Deneen admin¬ 
istration. In 1902, during the Yates adminis¬ 
tration, the State of Illinois received from the 
United States Government $1,065,302.78, to reim¬ 
burse the State for expenses incurred during the 
Civil War and the Spanish-American War. The 
















receipt of thia large sum of money from the 
Pederal Government permitted the lowering of the 
tax rate for the year from 50 centa to 40 cents 
on the $100. As a tax rate of 1 cent on the $100 
produces $100,000 of taxes the sum received from 
the United States Government is more than equiva¬ 
lent to the reduction in the tax rate for 1902. 
The ignoring of the sum thus received from the 
United States Government has afforded Governor 
Yates an opportunity to make a fictitious showing 
of economy. As a matter of fact, when this is 
taken into account the average rate of taxes under 
Governor Yates, instead of being 49 cents, as 
claimed by him, was 51% cents, as against 50 
cents under the Deneen administration. 

Executive Office and Mansion. 

Still another example of Governor Yates’ un¬ 
fairness is found in his attempt to show the 
economy of his own as compared with the adminis¬ 
trations of Governor Tanner and Governor Deneen, 
by a comparison of appropriations for the mainte¬ 
nance of the executive office and executive man¬ 
sion. The followifig figures are given by him: 


Governor Tanner’s administration.$110,733.07 

Governor Yates’ administration. 94,940.00 

Governor Deneen’s administration . 307,500.00 


This makes an apparent showing of economy, 
but it is one that will not bear inspection. In 
Governor Tanner’s appropriations Governor Yates 
has erroneously included an item of $35,741. This 
is not an item of current expenses, but a special 
appropriation for improving and refurnishing the 
executive mansion. In his own appropriation 
$5,000 only is in the same way erroneously in¬ 
cluded. In Governor Deneen’s appropriations are 
erroneously included the following items: 

Special appropriation for investigation of 

Illinois Central Railroad.$100,000.00 

Biennial appropriation for salary and ex¬ 
pense of Department and Institution 

Auditor . 20,000.00 

Amount expended on investigation Illinois 
Central Railroad out of contingent fund 

of Executive Department. 39,420.11 

Repairing and refurnishing Executive 

Mansion . '27,000.00 

Amount paid out of Contingent Fund Ex¬ 
ecutive Department for incidental ex¬ 
penses of Civil Service Commission. 14,091.38 


Making a total erroneously Included in 
Governor Deneen’s appropriations of. $200,511.47 
Deducting the items erroneously included we 


have: 

Governor Tanner’s appropriations.$ 74,992.07 

Governor Yates’ appropriations. 89,940.00 

Governor Deneen’s appropriations. 106,988.53 


The increase of ordinary expenses under Gov¬ 
ernor Yates over those of Governor Tanner is al¬ 
most precisely equal to the increase in ordinary 
expenses under Governor Deneen over those under 
Governor Yates. Both are attributable to the 
eame cause—the natural increase of the public 
business and the necessity for making pc’«ikvisioii 
for giving it proper attentioiL 














Decrisased Tax Bate. 

Another contention made hj Governor Yates is 
that the basis of property valuation for the levy¬ 
ing of taxes was larger during Governor Deneen's 
administration than during his. This is true. A 
tax levied at the same rate would yield a larger 
sum during Governor Deneen’s administration 
than during Governor Yates ^ administration. Ap¬ 
propriations, however, were likewise increased by 
the special appropriations of $3,690,037, already 
alluded to, and by a corresponding increase of 
ordinary appropriations. It will be observed that 
the increase in special appropriations above given 
is more than twice as large as the total increase 
in tax receipts, but so amply covered by receipts 
from other sources as to permit the maintenance 
of a 50 cent tax rate for the final biennial period 
of the present administration, as compared with 
a 55 cent tax rate for the final biennial period of 
the Yates ^ administration—a 9.1 per cent reduc¬ 
tion. 

The Vote on Increased Appropriations. 

At the beginning of Governor Deneen^s admin¬ 
istration an investigation, made by the State 
Board of Charities and the State Architect and a 
consulting engineer, revealed the fact that the 
State institutions were in bad physical condition. 
The matter was discussed in the public press at 
the time, and in Governor Deneen^s messages and 
the reports of the State Board of Charities was 
brought to the attention of the General Assembly. 
Both the Legislature and the public agreed that the 
institutions of the State ought to be rehabilitated 
and brought up to the times. They had been 
allowed to run down by former failure to expend 
suflSlcient money to keep them in good condition. 
On account of the large amount of money in the 
treasury it was deemed an opportune time to make 
the appropriations necessary to put the State in¬ 
stitutions into good condition, especially in view 
of the fact that this could be done without any 
increase in the State tax rate. The General As¬ 
sembly so decided. The specific amounts making 
up the increased appropriations and the vote there¬ 
on are as follows; 

Increased appropriations for State Charitable In¬ 
stitutions, $1,438,782. Vote on increased ordinary- 
expenses: Senate, 33 for; none against. In the 
House, 88 for; none against. For increased special 
appropriations: Senate, 37 for; none against. 

House, 99 for; none against. 

University of Illinois, $862,255. Increased ordi¬ 
nary expenses: Vote—Senate, 44 for; none against. 
House, 133 for; none against. Special appropria¬ 
tions: Senate, 41 for; none against. House, 103 
for; none against. 

Seventh Regiment Armory, $150,000. Vote—Sen¬ 
ate, 33 for; none against. House, 128 for; none 
against. 

Land for Second Regiment Armory and Rifle 
Range, $44,000. Vote—Senate, 38 for; none against. 
House, 141 for; none against. 

Illinois Central Investigation, $150,000. Appro¬ 
priation for Governor, $100,000. Vote—Senate, 42 
for; none against. House, 128 for; two against. 
For Attorney General, $50,000. Vote—Senate, 4'1 
for; none against. House, 135 for; none against. 


state Normal Building, CarbondaJe, 550,000. Vote 
—Senate, 37 for; none against. House, 133 for; 
none against. 

Eastern Normal Building, Charleston, $100,000. 
Vote—Senate, 37 for; none against. House, 133 for; 
none against. 

Normal School, Normal, $110,000. Vote—Senate, 
37 for; none against. House, 133 for; none against. 

Site for New Penitentiary, $500,000. Vote—Sen¬ 
ate, 37 for; none against. House, 110 for; none 
against. 

New Supreme Court Building, $285,000. Vote- 
Senate, 41 for; none against. House, 114 for; none 
against. 

Against all these appropriations bills not one 
vote is recorded, except in the case of the approp¬ 
riation of $100,000 to the Executive Department 
for the prosecution of the Illinois Central Eail- 
road case, where 128 votes for and 2 votes against 
the appropriation were, cast in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives. 

All parties joined, therefore, in passing these 
appropriation bills. Not a dollar of this money 
but was wisely appropriated, and not a dollar but 
is being wisely expended. Criticisms of these 
appropriations are not criticisms of Governor 
Deneen, but of both Houses and all parties repre¬ 
sented in the General Assembly, 



30 


CHAf’TEB VI. 

Business Methods. 

As was already stated, under the present ad¬ 
ministration the new office of Department and 
Institution Auditor was created. To this officer 
has been assigned by the Governor not only the 
duty of investigating accounts of State institu¬ 
tions and departments, but the duty of making- 
reports as to their business management and of 
offering such criticisms as the facts warrant and 
such suggestions as wilTlead to improvement. In 
this way, the Governor is kept in touch not only 
with the disbursement of the public moneys but 
wdth the general work of each department and in¬ 
stitution. 

Under the direction of the Governor, the In¬ 
stitution Auditor has investigated the accounts of 
the Insurance Department, covering a period of 
thirteen years, with the result that $64,957.99 was 
recovered from a former insurance superintendent 
and $61,351.61 from three insurance companies. 
The Institution Auditor has also audited the ac¬ 
counts of the ,i.djutant General's Department, of 
the Fish Commission; the Bureau of Labor Sta¬ 
tistics; the Game Department; the State Board of 
Health; the Live Stock Commission; the State 
Mining Board; the State Board of Pharmacy; 
the State grain offices in Chicago and East S^ 
Louis; the University of Illinois; the Public Ad¬ 
ministrator of Cook County; the Southern Illinois 
Normal School; the Southern Illinois Peniten¬ 
tiary; the State Eeformatory; the Illinois State 
Penitentiary, and other departments which are 
under the direction of the executive office. 

Under the system of auditing introduced by the 
Deneen administration, the departments and in¬ 
stitutions having balances on deposit with banks 
have been required to secure the payment of in¬ 
terest on same. The amount of interest thus re¬ 
ceived to May 1, 1908, was $54,314.02. 

‘ The investigation of accounts by this officer re¬ 
vealed the withholding of funds by former Stete 
auditors and treasurers, amounting in the aggre¬ 
gate to $321,000. Of this amount, $56,477.28 has 
been already restored to the public treasury and 
suits are pending for the recovery of further 
amounts claimed to be due from these former 
State officials. 

As some criticism has been made regarding the 
institution of these suits, a brief review of one 
of the practices which led to the present charges 
against former State officials may be of interest. 

The inability of Illinois municipalities to bor¬ 
row money upon their bonds at satisfactory rates 
of interest, led to the enactment of a law in 
1865, afterwards amended in 1877 and 1879, which 
provided that such municipalities as desired might 
list their bonds with the Auditor of Public Ac- 


49 


counts. Tho payment of the municipal bonds thus 
listed, principal and interest, was thereupon guar¬ 
anteed by the State, the State being secured 
against loss by the following provisions: That 
the State might, through its auditors and treas¬ 
urers, levy a tax upon the municipality issuing the 
bonds, the tax to cover three items of outlay: 
First, an item covering the payment of interest; 
second, an item creating a sinking fund for the 
ultimate retirement of the bonds; third, an item 
to cover the cost of the le\ 7 ^ing, collecting and 
(Ustribuling to the bondholders the money raised 
from the tax thus levied upon the municipality. 
It is the third item which forms the basis of the 
present suits against former auditors and treas¬ 
urers. The purpose of this item was to relieve 
the State from the assumption of any liability 
«ir expenle in connection with the levying, collec¬ 
tion and distribution of these municipal taxes. 
It was found, however, that for a long period of 
years State auditors and treasurers had secured 
appropriations from the General Assembly to cover 
the salaries and expenses incurred by their depart 
ments in the performance of this work and at 
the same time had levied a tax upon the munici¬ 
palities to cover the same expenditure. 

The constitution of the State provides that 
State officers “shall receive for their services a 
salary to be established by law” and “shall not 
receive to their own use any fees, costs, per¬ 
quisites or ofl&ce, or other compensation.” 

Such being the law, information was brought 
to the Governor regarding the retention of 
amounts collected under the third item of munici¬ 
pal taxation above referred to. The matter was 
submitted to the Attorney General for his opinion. 
The Attorney General rendered an opinion that 
the Auditor was not entitled to retain such sums. 
Suit was accordingly instituted in order that tho 
matter might be tested by the courts. The case 
was carried to the Supreme Court, which upheld 
the contention of the Attorney General. Claims 
for similar sums retained by former officials were 
then placed in the hands of the Attorney General 
and these are now in process of collection. This 
was an exceedingly unpleasant duty for the Gov¬ 
ernor, but he has pursued the only course pos¬ 
sible under the law. 

An attempt has been made to cast aspersions 
upon the sincerity of the efforts of Governor De- 
neen to recover funds withheld from the State, 
by misleading and^,dishonest statements in regard 
to the fees collected by him when State’s attorney 
of Cook County. 

A brief review of the law governing the fees 
of State’s attorneys in Illinois will show the 
groundlessness of these statements. 

The law governing the compensation of State’s 
attorneys in Illinois was enacted in 1872. It pro¬ 
vided for the payment of fees to such officers, on 
condition that they be collected out of fines im¬ 
posed and judgments collected by them during the 
preceding twelve months. Under the law, on 
March 1st, of each year, the State’s attorneys of 


41 


fhe several counties are required to make reports 
to the countj judges of their respective counties 
of all fees earned and collected during the pre¬ 
ceding year. Upon the filing of such reports, a 
proceeding is begun in the county court to de¬ 
termine the amount due to the State’s Attorney. 
Five days before the hearing on this proceeding, 
the State’s attorney is required to notify the 
county superintendent of public instruction that 
the report has been filed in the office of the county 
clerk. The county superintendent thereupon be¬ 
comes a party to the proceeding. After a full 
hearing a judgment of court is entered, authoriz¬ 
ing the State’s attorney to retain the fees due 
him and to turn over to the county superintendent 
the balance remaining. 

In this manner judgments have been entered in 
the county court of Cook County for all fees col¬ 
lected by Governor Deneen when State’s attorney 
of that county, during the eight years of his ad¬ 
ministration, just as like judgments have been 
entered in favor of his predecessors ever since 
the law went into effect. Each year, during the 
same period, similar judgments have been entered 
in each of the remaining 101 counties of the state, 
making an aggregate of 3,762 judgments ren¬ 
dered in favor of State’s attorneys under the law 
of 1872, in this State. 

The constitutionality of a law could hardly 
have been subjected to a severer test. Neverthe- 
les^s, certain political enemies of Governor Deneen, 
in order to harass him after his term of office as 
State’s attorney had expired, started a suit to test 
the right of State’s attorneys to retain such fees 
against the present State’s attorney of Cook 
County, Hon. John J. Healy. The real person 
aimed at, of course, was Governor Deneen. The 
case was carried to the Supreme Court and the 
right of the State’s attorney to such fees upheld. 
This issue, therefore, except for political pur¬ 
poses, may be regarded as disposed of. For po¬ 
litical purposes, however, it has been resurrected 
during the present campaign and an effort has 
been made to trace some sort of similarity be¬ 
tween the case of State’s attorneys taking fees’to 
which they are entitled by express provision of 
the statute of 1872, and the case of auditors and 
treasurers withholding funds to which, under the 
express provisions of the statutes, they were not 
entitled. The fees of State’s attorneys are ad¬ 
judged due them in a public hearing upon their 
reports filed in open court. Of the funds with¬ 
held by the auditors and treasurers, no accounting, 
of course, was ever made, nor were the facts in 
relation to them discovered until they were 
brought to light under Governor Deneen’s adminis¬ 
tration. It is, of course, unfortunate that in 
some instances recovery is had not from these 
officials themselves, but from their sur\dving 
bondsmen, and no doubt Governor Deneen regrets 
this feature of the case as much as anyone. As 
Governor, however, his duty was plain. Under 
the law, he possessed no discretion in the matter. 
The facts which came to his knowledge were 


42 


simply submitted by the Goremor to his olHcial 
legal adviser, the Attorney General, and by the 
Attorney General to the courts. 

The Illinois Centeal Case. 

Another investigation made under Governor De- 
neen’s direction by the Institution Auditor was 
of the accounts between the Illinois Central Rail¬ 
road Company and the State. This investigation 
has, so far, involved an expenditure of $47,- 
668.81. Of this amount, $8,248.70 has been ex¬ 
pended from the appropriation of $100,000 made 
by the last General Assembly to the executive 
department for the prosecution of this investiga¬ 
tion. Upon the investigation, one or more per¬ 
sons have been engaged since December 2, 1905 j 
at times as many as 18 accountants have been 
thus employed. The investigation is still incom¬ 
plete, its completion awaiting the decision of the 
courts fixing the proper basis for an accounting 
of the gross income between the State and the 
railroad company. The following is a brief state¬ 
ment of the relations of the State and the rail¬ 
road company and the claims which have been 
made the basis of the present suit: 

On February 10, 1851, the General Assembly of 
the State of Illinois passed an act incorporating 
the Illinois Central Railroad Company and granted 
to the company 2,595,000 acres of land to aid 
in the construction of the road. Subsequently, 
the company sold the greater portion of the land 
granted and realized therefrom a sum in excess of 
$30,000,000. The cost of the 702 miles of charter 
lines was more than covered by this amount. The 
line from Cairo to East Dubuque was placed in 
operation during the year 1856. 

In consideration of the grants, privileges and 
franchises conferred by the State upon the com¬ 
pany, it was agreed that the company should pay 
into the State Treasury on the first Mondays of 
June and December of each year a sum equal to 
at least seven per cent of the gross receipts of 
the company, and for the purpose of ascertaining 
the amount of the gross receipts, the company was 
required by its charter to keep an accurate ac¬ 
count, and to furnish a sworn copy thereof to 
the Governor of the State, who was authorized to 
verify the same. 

Under the direction of Governor Deneen an 
investigation of the accounts of the company was 
made during the years lfi06-1907, and the fact 
ascertained that for many years past the company 
had failed to include in its reports numerous 
items of gross receipts amounting in the aggre¬ 
gate to many millions of dollars. The matter 
was then referred to the Attorney General by 
Governor Deneen, with the request that he take 
such action in the cdhrts as in his opinion might 
be necessary to recover from the Illinois Central 
Railroad Company such sums as might be justly 
due the State. In compliance with this request 
the Attorney General filed a bill for an accounting 
against the railroad company in the Circuit Court 


4 % 


of La Salle County, Illinois, in June, 1907, where 
the case is still pending. 

In the bill filed it is claimed in behalf of the 
State that the company has failed to account to 
the State for seven per cent of the following 
items of gross receipts: 


Receipts of Cairo Bridge.$ 7,497,720 

Receipts of Dubuque Bridge. 3,155,696 

Receipts from investments. 61,902,358 

Receipts from express . 5,000,000 

Receipts from restaurants, hotels, etc,... 1,500,000 

Receipts from Chicago real estate. 68,133 

Receipts for use of equipment by for¬ 
eign lines .. 5,000,000 

Receipts from grain elevators in Chicago 788,374 
Receipts from grain elevators in Cairo... 97,185 
Receipts from interest on ’cans and de¬ 
posits .. 3,000,000 


It is also claimed that certain amounts were 
deducted by the company from the gross receipts 
without any authority of law, and particularly 
that there was deducted: 


On account of drayage.$ 2,000,000 

On account of switching. 5,000,000 

On account of rebates. 10,000,000 


It is also claimed that the company should have 
collected for services performed the following 
sums: 

For carrying coal and supplies for non¬ 
charter lines .$10,000,000 

For freights diverted from charter lines. 2,000,000 
For mileage books delivered in payment 

of newspaper advertising, etc. 1,295,000 

For use of equipment by non-charter lines 3,000,000 
For use of Chicago terminals by non¬ 
charter lines . 2,140,000 

For use of other terminals by non-charter 
lines . 1,500,000 

It is also claimed in behalf of the State that 
in the division of earnings between the charter 
and non-charter lines the railroad company 
adopted numerous fraudulent schemes and devices 
which have resulted in defrauding the State out 
of several millions of dollars, and, finally, it is 
claimed that there is now due the State not less 
than $15,000,000. 

This is one of the most important suits ever 
instituted in behalf of the State. Its preparation 
'has involved an immense amount of detail work. 
Should the court’s ruling require the presentation 
of evidence on the facts making up the amounts 
claimed, a large amount of labor and a large out¬ 
lay of money in the presentation of the case will 
devolve upon the State. 

It may be observed that while the charter of 
the company requires the filing of a report semi¬ 
annually with the Governor and the verifying of 
that report by him, the rules for determining the 
basis for division have been left to the company 
and have never been judicially established, and 
Governor Deneen for the first time presents the 
matter to the courts for their adjudication. In 
view of the fact that the company now pays an¬ 
nually a sum in excess of $1,000,000 a year under 
its contract with the State, the advantage of hav¬ 
ing a comprehensive investigation and judicial 
determination of this matter is apparent. 
















CHAPTEE VII. 

Interest on Public Funds. 

Prior to the election ©f the present State Treas¬ 
urer, Honorable John F. Smulski, no interest on 
pubUc moneys deposited with banks had found 
its way into the State Treasury. During his can¬ 
didacy for election as State Terasurer, however, 
Mr. Smulski pledged himself, if elected, to turn 
all interest received upon deposits of public 
moneys into the State Treasury. The redemption 
of this pledge by him has resulted in the deposit 
of interest for one year on public funds up to 
July 1, 1908, to the amount of $136,000. 

With a view to securing similar action by fu¬ 
ture State Treasurers, Governor Deneen in his 
biennial message of 1907 recommended the pas¬ 
sage of suitable legislation, saying: 

“I therefore recommend that a law be enacted 
with an emergency clause requiring the custodians 
of public funds to deposit the same with banks 
under proper safeguards and providing that the 
interest received thereon shall be paid into the 
public treasury.” 

Suitable measures were framed and at the last 
session of the General Assembly were enacted into 
law. That the result will be highly advantageous 
to the State is already obvious from what has 
been done under Mr. Smulski’s administration. 
The manifest propriety of such a disposition of 
the interest on public funds, has resulted in the 
enactment of similar legislation by a large num¬ 
ber of other states. In adopting this policy Illi- 
nois is following in the wake of New York, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Florida, Virginia, North Dakota, Geor¬ 
gia, Missouri, Ehode Island, Ohio, New Jersey, 
Connecticut, Michigan, Maine, and Massachusetts. 


CHAPTER Vin. 


Primary Election Legislation. 

In the campaign preceding the general election 
of 1904, Governor Deneen was the only candidate 
who made a campaign throughout the Stat§ in 
favor of primary reform. It was to his persist¬ 
ent advocacy, more than to any other single caus^, 
that the movement which led to the passage of 
our present primary election law ,was due. In 
• view of statements made by Governor Yates, it 
may be well to recall to mind the fact that Gov¬ 
ernor Deneen’s advocacy of primary election re¬ 
form preceded the submission of the question to 
popular vote. The Republican platform of 1904 
advocated the adoption of a compulsory primary 
law as also did Governor Deneen in his campaign 
upon that platform. In his inaugural message to 
the General Assembly he dealt with this subject 
and the first sentence of that message declares, 
“Our State needs a compulsory primary law.” 
This declaration is followed by a discussion of 
the evils of the old nominating system and by the 
specific recommendation that the suggested re¬ 
vision of the primary election laws should embody, 
at least, these features: Provisions requiring each 
political party to hold its primaries in the several 
counties and townships in the State on the same 
day; that the day and hour should be fixed in the 
statutes; that judges and clerks therefor should 
be appointed by the proper county authorities; 
that the names of all candidates for offices should 
be printed on the ballot with squares in front of 
each, thus giving to the voter an opportunity to 
designate ffis choice. In short, that primaries 
should be held under the safeguards which sur¬ 
round regular elections. Each of the primary 
laws since enacted has embodied every one of these 
recommendations of Governor Deneen’s inaugural 
message. 

The first of these laws was enacted at the regu¬ 
lar legislative session of 1905. It was approved 
by Governor Deneen May 18th and became ef¬ 
fective on July 1, 1905. On this bill the vote in 
the House of Representatives was as follows: 
For the bill, Republicans 84, Democrats 28; 
against the bill, Democrats 18, Prohibitionists 1, 
Socialists 1. 

In the Senate the vote stood: For the bill. 
Republicans 40, Democrats 1. Against the bill. 
Republicans 1, Democrats 3. The votes necessary 
to pass a bill are, in the House 77, in the Sen¬ 
ate 26. 

On April 5, 1906, the Supreme Court declared 
this law unconstitutional. Within five minutes of 
the handing down of the Supreme Court’s decision, 
a proclamation was issued by Governor Deneen 
convening the General Assembly in extra session 
five days later on April 10, 1906, to take up the 
eonsideration of a primary election measure. 

45 



upon the convening of the General Assembly, d, 
special message was submitted by the Governor 
to that body reiterating the necessity for primary 
law revision and again calling attention to the 
pledge of the party platform, as well as to the 
popular demand for primary reform, as shown by 
the vote upon referendum in the election of 1904. 

In this connection the message said: 

The duty of the legislature Is plain. The solemn 
pledges given to the people in a matter touching 
the fundamental condition of Republican govern¬ 
ment should be redeemed. This will not have been 
done until there has been placed upon the statute 
books a law which, while complying with constitu¬ 
tional requirements, will secure the substantial re¬ 
lief sought. The people have demanded the sub¬ 
stance instead of the semblance of participation in 
the nomination of candidates. Their demand can 
be answered only by the enactment of laws which 
will restore to the people control of the entrances 
to public life. It is your duty to see that this is 
accomplished, so that the voters shall have the 
power not merely of electing but of selecting their 
candidates. 

At the extra session of the General Assembly 
so called, the subject of primary reform was again 
thoroughly discussed. The discussion developed 
the fact that whilst a strong sentiment favorable 
to reform existed in the General Assembly, it 
was difficult to reach an agreement upon the de¬ 
tails of a primary election measure. Neverthe¬ 
less, after a prolonged session a second law was 
enacted. The difficulty experienced in securing 
the passage of this measure is shown by the vote 
in the House and Senate on this bill, which was 
as follows: In the House: For the bill, 77 (the 
exact number necessary for its passage); against 
the bill, 61. The affirmative votes were all Ee- 
publicans except one, a Prohibitionist, and the 
negative votes were Democrats, 56; Eepublicans, 5. 

In the Senate: For the bill, 37; against the bill, 
none. 

This law, like the first, was reviewed by the 
Supreme Court, which on October 2nd, 1907, 
handed down an opinion holding that it was con- “ 
stitutionally defective. 

The subject of primary election reform was, 
therefore, again placed where it had stood at the 
beginning of the present administration. The 
defects of the old liominating system still re¬ 
mained after these enactments had been declared 
invalid. The pledges of the party were still unre¬ 
deemed and the popular demand for primary re-_ 
form had not been complied with. 

In the meantime, on May 16, 1907, the General 
Assembly adjourned, but in compliance with a 
special message addressed to them by Governor 
Deneen on May 10th, urging the General Assembly 
to take ^ome action on deep waterway legislation, 
then pending, before their final adjournment, 
agreed to reconvene on October 8th following. On 
the reconvening of the General Assembly, an¬ 
other special message was addressed to them by 
Governor Deneen, calling attention to the de¬ 
cision of the Supreme Court rendered October 2, 
1907, invalidating the second primary law (which 
had just been made public) and suggested that 


4f 


they again take up the question of primary re¬ 
form and. that in the framing of a primary law 
“the Genera] Assembly keep in view the necessity 
of avoiding the imposition of even the slightest 
limitation upon the power of the people freely 
and directly to express their views and to have 
their views control in the nomination of candi¬ 
dates. And to that end I recommend for your | 
consideration the enactment of a direct primary | 
laWj with an emergency clause. I further recom- i 
mend to you that an advisory vote be provided for ! 
in relation to the election of United States sen- ■ 
ators.” 

Accordingly, at the session thus prolonged in 
response to Governor Deneen’s special message in 
relation to waterways, the subject of primary 
election reform was again taken up by the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly. 

Between October 8th, the date of its convening, 
and November 26th, the General Assembly took 
numerous recesses without having accomplished 
anything in the way of primary election legisla¬ 
tion. At that time it was the general opinion that 
the effort to secure a primary election law would 
fail. During the week following this last ad¬ 
journment of the General Assembly, Governor De- 
neen entered upon a speech-making itinerary which 
embraced 53 counties, all of which he visited be¬ 
fore the reconvening of the General Assembly on 
January 14th. Primary legislation was the key¬ 
note of all these speeches, the Governor devoting 
the greater part of each of his addresses to that 
subject. To his energetic efforts and persistent 
appeals to the people was due the maintenance of 
the sentiment which finally procured the passage 
of the present'primary election law. It may be 
noted also that Governor Deneen was the only 
man in public life who made a campaign for 
primary legislation from October 8th until the 
time of the passage of the present primary law. 

It will be noted that the third primary election 
measure is what is known as a direct primary law, 
the General Assem again following the sug¬ 
gestion of Governor Deneen’s special message, that 
a direct primary election law be enacted, but fail¬ 
ing to pass the measure with an emergency clause 
as recommended by the Governor. 

The following was the vote upon this measure: 

In the House, for the bill, Eepublicans 50, Demo¬ 
crats 33; against the bill, Eepublicans 19, Demo¬ 
crats 15. 

In the Senate for the bill—Eepublicans, 36; 
Democrats, 5. Against the bill—Eepublicans, 3; 
Democrats, 1, 

This law also embodied the recommendations 
made in the Governor’s special message of October 
8, 1907, together with the recommendations al¬ 
ready referred to as suggested in the inaugural 
and other messages to the General Assembly. 

In relation to this measure it may be said that 
a grave difference of opinion existed at the time 
of its passage in many communities as to the suc¬ 
cessful working of such a law in large cities. Thi» 
matter was discussed at the charter convention, 




called by the Hon. Edward F. Dunne, then mayor 
of Chicago. The convention was an entirely non¬ 
partisan body, made up of members of the Chicago 
City Council, members of the Illinois House of 
Bepresentatives and Senate and other prominent 
citizens. In the charter adopted by that body for 
the municipal government of Chicago a provision 
was adopted under which primary elections should 
be governed by a system embracing features both 
of the direct nomination and convention plans. It 
was provided, in the case of candidates receiving 
less than 35 per cent of the popular vote at the 
primary elections, that the nomination should be 
made by delegates in a nominating convention; 
whilst in the case of candidates receiving 35 per 
cent or more of the popular vote nominations 
should be direct. 

At the time of issuing his inaugural message 
Governor Deneen was in advance of sentiment in 
the General Assembly upon the subject of primary 
reform. That he has been in advance of it ever 
since is evident from the difficulty of securing the 
passage of subsequent primary election measures. 

In his present political campaign Governor 
Yates has attempted to discredit Governor 
Deneen’s record upon primary election reform and 
has made the assertion that he is the original 
advocate of the reform in this State. It is true 
that Governor Yates incorporated in his messages 
a paragraph favoring the revision of the primary 
election system; just as he inserted another para¬ 
graph in relation to civil service. With Governor 
Yates, however, the matter ended there. No legis¬ 
lation followed, either upon the subject of primary 
election reform or civil service. No primary re¬ 
form bill introduced during his administration got 
as far as third reading. Of the two primary re¬ 
form measures introduced during his administra¬ 
tion the enacting clause of one was stricken out 
while the bill was on the order of second reading, 
and the other was introduced and referred to a 
committee, but was never reported out. 

Furthermore, Governor Yates made no campaign 
for primary reform in his second candidacy for 
the Governorship, and during the long struggle 
which preceded the passage of the three primary 
election measures, enacted during Governor 
Deneen’s administration, when the aid of every 
Eepublican favoring such legislation was of great 
importance, Governor Yates put forth no effort in 
support of any of these measures, 

Again, not only is Governor Yates himself with¬ 
out a record upon primary election reform, but 
those who are responsible for his present candi¬ 
dacy were, to a man, its opponents. The very 
men who are now favoring his candidacy and who 
conducted the political attack upon the State in¬ 
stitutions and civil service, did all within their 
power to defeat the enactment yof primary election 
legislation. They opposed that legislation not only 
by voting against it themselves or refraining from 
voting (which was equivalent to voting agaiMt 
it), but by influencing others in their several dis¬ 
tricts to do so. 


49 


This is a strange record from which to challenge 
the sincerity of Governor Deneen’s advocacy of 
primary election reform. So far as Governor 
Yates is concerned tlie challenge is as insincere as 
it is futile. During his candidacy for United 
States Senator against Senator Cullom in 1906 
Governor Yates had occasion to express himself 
regarding the relation of Governor Deneen to the 
first primary election measure. This is vrhat he 
then said: 

T claim some credit for the new law, but to Gov¬ 
ernor Deneen and to Speaker Shurtleff more than 
to any other men is to be ascribed the credit. 

Again, in an interview immediately after the 
measure had been declared unconstitutional by the 
Supreme Court, he said: 

From all I can possibly learn at this early hour, 
I unhesitatingly charge that it will be found upon 
examination that no Yates or Deneen man is re¬ 
sponsible for the invalid portions of the law, but 
that the law owes its downfall and overthrow to 
provisions deliberately inserted by the friends of 
the senatorial machine in this State, with the in¬ 
tention of discrediting and if possible, invalidating 
the law. 

Again, after Governor Deneen had called a 
special session of the General Assembly to con¬ 
sider the enactment of a new primary law, Gov¬ 
ernor Yates said: 

The action of Governor Deneen in calling for a 
special session is a timely and appropriate proceed¬ 
ing. It only remains to see to it that enemies of 
the law, who have systematically and persistently 
helittled it and ridiculed it for the past year in 
all parts of the State, do not slip unconstitutional 
clauses into it this time. 

Complaint has been made by this candidate and 
his friends regarding the holding of party cau¬ 
cuses on the alleged ground that it is a violation 
of the spirit of the primary election law. Gov¬ 
ernor Yates has repeatedly discussed this matter 
in his campaign speeches. Like the other oppo¬ 
nents of party caucuses he invokes not the language 
but the spirit of the law in support of his con¬ 
tention. The law does not prohibit the holding of 
caucuses. On the contrary, it encourages it. The 
purpose of the caucus is the discussion of the qual¬ 
ifications of party candidates to be presented to 
the people for their selection or rejection on 
primary election day. This and nothing more is 
the object of the caucus. The practice of holding 
such gatherings of party leaders is universal. The 
Democratic party held a caucus recently, under 
the direction of their committeemen, national and 
State, with a view to the adjustment of their party 
differences and the conservation of their party 
strength; a perfectly proper proceeding. On May 
6th and 7th last the Prohibitionists held a caucus 
at Springfield in which they practically agreed 
upon the personnel of the ticket to be submitted 
by that party to the voters on primary election 
day. Some of the Eepublican party leaders in 
Chicago have likewise held caucuses with the same 
end in view—the harmonizing of the various Ee- 
publican elements—so that next November all ele- 


60 


ments may rally to the support of the party. The 
law contemplates that men interested in govern¬ 
ment shall get together and discuss men and meas¬ 
ures to insure the success of their political parties 
and opinions. All that is required is that this 
should be done openly and fairly. A law prohibit¬ 
ing such action cannot be framed under our con¬ 
stitution or under any free government. 

The sources of these criticisms of the primary 
election law and its enforcement casts doubt upon 
their genuineness, whilst the criticisms themselves 
sound most familiar to the real friends of primary 
reform. A very large part of the criticism comes 
from men who profess friendship for primary re¬ 
form in the abstract, but dissatisfaction with every 
actual primary measure proposed. They are in 
favor of some law, but against any law. These 
gentlemen seem to be more friendly to the 
“spirit’^ of primary legislation than they ever 
were to the letter of it as contained in the 
various primary election bills submitted to the 
General Assembly. \ 

Allusion may be here made to the criticism 
made by Governor Yates concerning the nomina¬ 
tion of the present State Treasurer, Hon. John P. 
Smulski. It is said in this connection that Hon. 
Andrew Eussel of Jacksonville, who was also a 
candidate for the Republican nomination for the 
same office, secured a larger popular vote at 'the 
primaries than did Mr. Smulski. This is true, 
and if a plurality nomination system had been in 
effect at that time Mr. Russell would have been 
the nominee of the party for the State treasurer- 
ship. Instead of this, however, the old delegate 
and convention system governed this nomination. 
In view of this, in many localities, where there 
were no factional differences, only a small fraction, 
of the party vote was cast at the primary elec¬ 
tion. In a large part of the State there was but 
one ticket in the field. Where that occurred only 
a formal vote was cast, while a larger vote was 
east where there were contests in the primary dis¬ 
tricts. The law governing the contest under which 
this nomination was made provided that the plur¬ 
ality of votes in each primary district should carry 
with it an instruction for the plurality candidate 
binding the delegates for one ballot only. Know¬ 
ing that under the law the nominations must be 
made in convention the voters of the party, as had 
long been the custom, refrained to a large extent 
from voting at the primary elections where there 
was no opposition ticket, which therefore became 
no fair test of the relative strength of candidates. 

When the matter of the nomination of a State 
treasurer was brought up in the convention it was 
found that of all the candidates for that office 
Mr. Smulski was the only one who would pledge 
himself to turn the interest on public funds into 
the State treasury. His attitude upon this ques¬ 
tion comnjended itself to the good judgment of 
the delegates and his nomination followed. 

The wisdom of his selection has been made clear 
since he assumed the duties of his office. It has 


51 


resulted in the payment to the State/for the first 
time in its history, of a. large sum as interest upon 
public funds, and has furthermore secured the 
passage of legislation requiring such payment by 
State treasurers in the future. 

Mr. Smulski is entitled to the credit of institut¬ 
ing the greatest reform connected with the admin¬ 
istration of the State treasurer’s oflSce in the his¬ 
tory of the State. Because of this Mr. Smulski 
has not escaped the common experience of men 
who have instituted reforms in the administration 
of public office. The people, however, have ap¬ 
proved his nomination. He received a plurality of 
140,000, a larger plurality than was received by 
any other Republican running on a State ticket 
in the United States in November, 1906. It would 
appear that the real complaint against Mr. Smul¬ 
ski is not the fact that he was nominated without 
having received a plurality of votes, but the fact 
that he established a policy of paying interest on 
public funds. It must be plain to those who arc 
familiar with the conduct of public business dur¬ 
ing the last eight years that it is the attitude of 
Mr. Smulski toward the disposition of public funds 
rather than the circumstances of his candidacy 
which has occasioned the persistent criticism to 
which he has been subjected by Governor Yates. 

Governor Yates further criticises Governor 
Deneen, because Hon. Louis Einaker was nomi¬ 
nated by the Republicans of Cook County for 
county judge, although Mr. Charles Ailing received 
a plurality of the votes. As stated heretofore, the 
law made it mandatory upon the delegates in 
each primary district to cast the first ballot for 
the person receiving a plurality of votes in that 
district. Two-thirds of the delegates at the Re¬ 
publican county convention in which Judge Ein¬ 
aker was nominated were instructed by the voters 
to vote for him on first ballot. This was done 
and he was nominated. The complaint, therefore, 
of Governor Yates is that the delegates obeyed the 
letter and spirit of the law under which the prim¬ 
aries were conducted. , 

A like complaint is made regarding the nomi¬ 
nation of Hon. Joseph Haas, county clerk of Cook 
County. Under the same primary law a majority 
of the delegates were instructed to vote for him 
and he was nominated on first ballot- 


62 


CHAFTER IT. 

Special Legislation for Chicago. 

During the present administration special legis¬ 
lation for the city of Chicago has been enacted, 
under the amendment to the constitution submitted 
by the General Assembly to a vote of the people 
in the general election of 1904. The General As¬ 
sembly, under the powers conferred by the con¬ 
stitutional amendment, has enacted the following 
special laws applicable to the city of Chicago: 
The act abolishing the jurisdiction of justices of 
the peace of Cook County in the city of Chicago 
and establishing in lieu thereof twenty-eight 
municipal courts of record; the act providing for 
the abolition of the township governments within 
the city of Chicago and the substitution therefor 
of a unified city government; the act providing 
for the extension of the term of oflSce of the mayor 
of Chicago from two to four years; the act pro¬ 
viding for the imposition of a tax upon wheeled 
vehicles, to be devote'd to the maintenance and 
improvement of public thoroughfares. The last 
was enacted under the general law, but has 
been classified with charter legislation because of 
inability to secure its enactment before the amend¬ 
ment to the constitution. 

This important legislation is a substantial recog¬ 
nition of some of the needs which are peculiar to 
the city of Chicago. The relief of Chicago by 
legislation of the character enacted under the con¬ 
stitutional amendment was advocated in Governor 
Deneen^s inaugural message, and what has been 
accomplished has proven of great advantage in the 
administration of the municipal affairs of that 
city. 

In no particular is the truth of this statement 
more apparent than in the changed condition of 
the judical business of the courts of Chicago and 
Cook County. For many years the delays of liti¬ 
gation in those courts have been all but intoler¬ 
able. Suits at law have ordinarily been obliged 
to lie dormant from two to three years after their 
commencement before a trial could be secured. 
Such delays have frequently involved, through loss 
of witnesses and other incidents, the defeat of just 
claims which could have been established if tried 
at once. Delay indeed became one of the recog¬ 
nized instriftnents of legal contests, and as this 
could best be borne by the wealthier. plaintiffs or 
defendants, it militated, in nearly every instance, 
against the poorer litigants. Under the new sys¬ 
tem the munieipal courts not only promptly dis¬ 
pose of the business of the old justice courts, but 
also of a large part of the business of the circuit, 
superior and criminal courts of Cook County. In 
this way the dockets of these courts are gradually 
being cleared of their accumulated business and 


63 


the old delays are becoming a thing of the past. 
If this legislation were the sole result of the con¬ 
stitutional amendment it would well repay the 
efforts put forth in securing it. Of great im¬ 
portance also is the legislation under which the 
term of the mayor of Chicago has been extended 
from two to four years, affording the administra¬ 
tive head of a great city an opportunity not only 
to inaugurate but to carry into effect his policies. 


14 


CHAPTEB X. 

Insurance Department, 

The subject of insurance is of great importance 
to citizens of Illinois. In this state the volume ' 
of business written amounts to $2,418,862,076 
annually; $73,962,407.88 is paid in the form of 
premiums annually and $34,262,710 is paid out by 
the 781 insurance companies doing business in this 
State in the form of insurance. 

In view of exposures made during the investiga¬ 
tion of insurance companies in the east, the de¬ 
partment and the administration undertook to 
codify the insurance laws of the State and amend 
them so as to furnish more ample protection to 
policy holders. 

To accomplish this end, the Insurance Depart¬ 
ment was directed by Governor Deneen to employ 
special counsel. Mr. O. B. Eyon, of Streator, was 
employed and spent over twelve months attending 
insurance conventions in various parts of the coun¬ 
try, making a study of insurance laws and gather¬ 
ing data for use in the proposed revision and 
amendment of the insurance laws of the State. 
Bills were prepared by the Insurance Superin¬ 
tendent, Fred W. Potter, the Actuary, Major John 
J. Brinkerhoff, and the attorney, and when the 
General Assembly convened, the following meas¬ 
ures were submitted to that body: 

Bills: — 

To require life insurance companies of other 
states to maintain deposits of securities for the 
benefit of policy holders. 

To require life insurance companies to maintain 
a reserve on their policies upon a higher basis than 
heretofore required. 

To authorize the Insurance Superintendent to en¬ 
large the information called for in the statements 
of life insurance companies. 

To prohibit misrepresentation, through adver¬ 
tisements, of the terms, benefits or advantages of 
policies of life insurance companies, their officers or 
agents. 

To regulate the investments of the funds of life 
insurance companies. 

To require the salaries paid officers, trustees 
and directors of life insurance companies to be de¬ 
termined by the Board of Directors. 

To regulate the provisions that may be contained 
in policies of life insurance issued in this State. 

To amend the law prescribing the form of certifi¬ 
cate on policies of life insurance registered in the 
department. 

To require biennial examinations of fraternal 
societies by the Insurance Department. 

All these were enacted into laws, and Illinois 
has taken the front rank in insurance legislation 
and administration. We have now as good in¬ 
surance laws as any in the country. Our insur¬ 
ance legislation is considered a model and is fol¬ 
lowed by other states. These extensive reforms 
effected under the Deneen administration have 
been brought about without interfering with the 
insurance business and without driving solvent in¬ 
surance companies out of the State. 

56 


CHAPTER XI. 


Factory Inspection. 

The growth of manufacturing iudustries in Illi¬ 
nois makes the work of this department of increas¬ 
ing importance. We have, at present, 379,436 
wage earners employed in manufacturing estab¬ 
lishments and our output of manufactures has 
reached the enormous total of $1,500,000,000 an¬ 
nually, almost $5,000,000 a day. 

The work of this department in the enforcement 
of laws for the protection, safety, health and com¬ 
fort of working men, women and children has 
been of vital importance to the w’elfare of the 
commonwealth, but its efforts in this regard have 
been hampered by a lack of a sufficient number of 
inspectors. Nevertheless, what could be done with 
the force at hand has been done under the present 
administration. The work of the Department has 
been greatly increased, and more has been accom¬ 
plished in the past three years and five months 
than in any period in its history. During the 
past three years and five months, under the pres¬ 
ent administration, the Factory Inspection De¬ 
partment has made 232,344 inspections, as against 
128,327 inspections for the ten years preceding the 
present administration, covering the entire past 
history of the department. 

Recognizing the necessity for the reorganizing 
and strengthening of the Department, ifi its work 
was to keep pace with the growth and extension 
of the industrial interests of the State, this ad¬ 
ministration, at the outset, saw the need of addi¬ 
tional legislation, extending its powers and en¬ 
larging its duties. To this end the co-operation 
of Professor Charles R. Henderson, of the Uni¬ 
versity of Chicago, and that of other experts upon 
this class of legislation was secured. In co-opera¬ 
tion with Chief Factory Inspector Edgar T, Da¬ 
vies, these gentlemen entered upon the work of 
preparing bills for submission to the General As¬ 
sembly, covering the legislation desired. Among 
the bills submitted were: 

An Act to provide for the health, safety and com¬ 
fort of the employes in factories, mercantile estab¬ 
lishments, mills and workshops (the hazardous and 
dangerous machinery act). 

An Act providing for the sanitation of food pro¬ 
ducing establishments. 

An Act providing for the protection of persons 
employed in the construction, repairing, alteration 
or removal of buildings, bridges, viaducts and 
other structures. 

An Act to regulate the manufacture, sale and 
transportation of clothing, wearing apparel and 
other articles in this State. 

An Act to enforce the erection of fire escapes on 
buildings. 

An Act to provide for the protection of the pub¬ 
lic from fire. 

An Act abolishing the old department and creat¬ 
ing a new department of Factory Inspection, organ¬ 
ized and eaulpped on a scientific basis with In- 


creased duties and authority, so as to provide an 
improved system of Factory Inspection to meet the 
changed conditions in industry. 

During the past two years, the Department has 
been entirely reorganized; complete modern busi¬ 
ness systems inaugurated, card index systems in¬ 
stalled for the collection and compilation of com¬ 
mercial statistics for the information of the pub¬ 
lic; the publishing annually of a business direc¬ 
tory of the State for free distribution; a new and 
improved system of recording the individual daily 
work performed by the inspectors. 

Heretofore there kis been no specific plan of 
co-operation between the school officials and fac¬ 
tory inspectors relative to children discharged 
from employment or out of schools; today there is 
a well-defined and well-working system of co¬ 
operation between the school officials, juvenile 
court or probatidh officers, child saving societies 
and the factory inspectors. As the result of this 
C(3-operation and the enforcement of the Child 
Labor Law, upwards of 16,000 children have been 
returned to school and a greatly increased school 
attendance is apparent throughout the State. 

The greatest capital the working man possesses 
is health, and the endeavors of the factory in¬ 
spectors have been consistently directed to bring 
about improved conditions for the working classes. 
One of the most unhealthful employments is that 
of metal polishing; tuberculosis is the ever-present 
enemy to the workers at .this trade; the mortality 
rate from this disease alone averaging heretofore 
53 per cent. Under the present administration 
the factory inspectors have been provided with 
scientific instruments for ascertaining the sani¬ 
tary conditions in any room where metal polishers 
are employed; the speed of the wheels; the size 
of the exhaust fans, and the adequacy of the 
system for carrying aw^ay the impurities in the 
air. During the present administration 816 metal 
polishing establishments have been inspected for 
this purpose. Very few were found to possess 
satisfactory systems for carrying off dust, and 
in most cases the places inspected had no equip¬ 
ment whatsoever. All the plants inspected have 
been required to install and maintain in good 
working order adequate systems to protect those 
employed at this most unhealthful occupation. 
In this connection may be properly mentioned the 
fact that the International Association of Metal 
Polishers, in their official journal recently issued, 
published an editorial commending the Illinois 
factory inspectors for the great improvement of 
conditions in the metal polishing establishments 
in Illinois. 

A subject of great importance to the general 
public, as well as to the workers in the garment 
makers’ craft, is the sanitary condition of the 
shops where clothing is made. Under the present 
administration the factory inspectors have made 
frequent and thorough inspections of all garment 
making establishmentsv in the State, and acting 
under their own authority, in co-operation with 
city and health officials, all insanitary establish¬ 
ments have been directed and required to put 


57 


their shops in clean anc[ sanitary condition, thus 
insuring a more healthful surrounding for the 
employe and protecting the public from contagion 
and epidemic. 

Among the new laws secured under this ad¬ 
ministration and charged to the factory inspectors 
for enforcement is the act introduced by the De¬ 
partment of Factory Inspection, providing for 
the protection of those engaged in the construc¬ 
tion, alteration and removal of buildings, viaducts, 
etc. Under this act greater protection is given to 
the life and limb of those engaged in the building 
and structural iron trades. Skilled and competent 
men from these trades have been appointed deputy 
factory inspectors thoroughly to inspect all build¬ 
ings in the course of construction, and to enforce 
the requirements of this act under the direction 
of the Chief Factory Inspector and in co-opera¬ 
tion with building commissioners and fire marshals. 

An important law passed under the present ad¬ 
ministration, which is a direct benefit to the gen¬ 
eral public and enforced by the Factory Inspec¬ 
tion Department, is the law providing for the 
sanitation and renovation of establishments manu¬ 
facturing ice cream, butterine, etc. Although this 
law has been in force less than a year, the factory 
inspectors have inspected almost a thousand of 
these establishments (in actual figures, .958), and 
in almost every establishment inspected they have 
required alterations to be made so as to comply 
with the sanitary requirements of the law, thus in¬ 
suring to the purchasing public clean and health¬ 
ful conditions in the establishments where these 
products are produced. 

The Department of Factory Inspection, under 
the present administration, has inaugurated the 
plan of reducing to proper legislative form, drafts 
of bills, submitted to the General Assembly as 
legislation desired to meet changed industrial 
conditions. This is an innovation, as heretofore 
the plan has been simply to suggest that legis¬ 
lation be enacted on this or that subject, no effort 
being made to reduce to concrete form such rec¬ 
ommendations so that the same might be given the 
attention of the General Assembly, the result 
being that the much desired legislation recom¬ 
mended by the factory inspectors heretofore never 
reached the legislators in time for consideration. 
While considerable progress was made in securing 
legislation under this administration, some of the 
legislation sought failed of passage. Among the 
acts thus failing was the hazardous and danger¬ 
ous machinery bill. As soon as it became appar¬ 
ent that this measure would not pass, the ad¬ 
ministration prepared and secured the adoption by 
the General Assembly of a resolution authorizing 
the Governor to appoint a commission composed of 
employers and employes to investigate conditions 
in factories and workshops, and to .report at the 
next General Assembly a bill or set, of bills pro¬ 
viding for the protection of life and limb, apd 
for the health, safety and comfort of men and 
women engaged in Illinois manufacturing estab¬ 
lishments. 


58 


Similar action was taken in the case of “Sani¬ 
tation Bill,” which also failed of passage. The 
adoption of a resolution was secured which pro¬ 
vided for the appointment of a commission to 
study occupational diseases. This is the first 
commission of its kind in the history of the 
United States, although investigations of this 
character are permanent features of industrial 
legislation in Germany, France and England. 

During this administration, therefore, the scope 
of the work of the Department has been greatly 
extended. It will be further extended in the 
future through the work of the two commissions 
already mentioned, and the subsequent legislation 
which their investigations will lead to. 

The increased duties of the Department have 
been met by a slight increase of the number of 
inspectors—from 18 in 1904, the last year of 
Governor Yates’ administration, to 22 in 1908, the 
last year of the present administration—and by a 
thorough reorganization of the work of the De¬ 
partment. The effect of the new policy is appar¬ 
ent, as already noted in the work accomplished. 
As a further illustration of its eflS.cacy, its effect 
upon the employment of child labor in the work¬ 
shops, factories, and mercantile establisljments in 
Illinois may be mentioned. In 1901, previous to 
the enactment of the new Child Labor Law, 19,839 
children were employed, or 4.1 per cent of all 
the employes, children and adults. Under the 
present administration a steady decrease has been 
brought about in the number of children employed 
in the State, and today we have child labor re¬ 
duced to less than 10,000. We have succeeded in 
reducing the per cent of child labor to 1.3 of the 
total employes, of the State. This is estimated to 
be the lowest percentage of any industrial state 
in the Union, from wMch figures are obtainable. 



59 


CHAPTEE XII. 

Industrial Insurance Commission, 

Related to the work of the Factory Inspection 
Department is that of the Industrial Insurance 
Commission, appointed under an act passed at the 
regular 1905 session of the General Assembly, 
The law under which it was created made it the 
duty of the commission to submit with its report 
to the General Assembly a law embodying a 
scheme of industrial insurance; in other words, a 
law providing compensation to workmen injured 
in the course of their employment. The report of 
the commission was submitted to the last General 
Assembly. Its recommendations regarding legis¬ 
lation constituted a somewhat radical departure 
from present laws, defining the relations of the 
employer and employe, as they affect the rights of 
the latter in case of injury. Industrial insurance 
legislation, however, has been adopted by every 
civilized nation except the United States. In the 
absence of such legislation in our country many 
citizens, corporations and associations have or¬ 
ganized voluntarily to afford an assured protec¬ 
tion to workmen who are, under the present law, 
otherwise obliged to assume the hazards incident 
to their occupations. 

Under a system of Industrial Insurance, such as 
that proposed, these hazards and the injuries and 
incidents arising therefrom are regarded as ordi¬ 
nary incidents of the business and the cost of in¬ 
suring against them as a charge to be borne, not 
by individual workmen, upon whom accident or 
negligence may throw an unjust and intolerable 
burden, but by the business as a whole. 

The report of the Industrial Insurance Commis¬ 
sion furnishes abundant data for the intelligent 
discussion of the questions involved and no doubt 
will lead to the enactment of laws which will 
greatly improve the condition of injured employes. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


^ State Mining Board. 

The State Mining Board has been one of the' 
active departments of the State government. 
Nineteen examinations have been held since Jan¬ 
uary, 1905. The number of applicants registereil 
for mine managers, 1st and 2d class, mine exami¬ 
ners and hoisting engineers, was 1,819. Of the 
above number 1,369 passed the examinations suc¬ 
cessfully and were given certificates, of compe¬ 
tency; 450 failed to make the necessary credits to 
pass the examination. 

On April 19th, 1905, upon recommendation of 
Governor Deneen, the State Mining Board went 
in a body to Ziegler, Ill., to investigate an ex¬ 
plosion in the Ziegler Coal Company’s mine. The 
result was a thorough and impartial examination 
of the conditions in the mine, which has been of 
the greatest value in subsequent efforts to prevent 
the repetition of such disasters. 

On April 16, 1906, the Board adopted a reso¬ 
lution governing the granting of certificates to 
local mine managers. Formerly they had been 
issued on presentation of application signed by 
ten men and endorsed by the State Mine Inspec¬ 
tors. This system was found unsatisfactory and 
from a legal standpoint the validity of the cer¬ 
tificates was questioned. Hereafter local mine 
managers to be known as 2d class mine managers 
are to be required to come before the Board for 
examination as to their knowledge and ability to 
run mines employing less than ten men. 

The dangers' incident to the work of coal min¬ 
ing make every attempt to increase the efficiency 
of employes in coal mines of great importance in 
the prevention of casualties to life and property. 
The praiseworthy character of the work of the 
present Board could not be better indicated than 
by the fact that statistics showing the loss of 
life in coal mines bear a constantly decreasing 
ratio to the tons of coal mined. For this reason 
the action of the Board in raising from time to 
time the standard of efficiency required in candi¬ 
dates for miners’ certificates is worthy of com¬ 
mendation as conducing to the safety of men 
employed in this industry. 

On June 3d the State Miners’ Legislative Com¬ 
mittee for New Laws adopted a resolution, in 
which, after calling attention to numerous meas¬ 
ures for the protection of miners and other work¬ 
men secured under the present administration. 
Governor Deneen is commended as follows: 

The Governor has taken an advanced position In 
regard to industrial legislation. He was satisfied 
that the laws requested by the coal miners, many 
of which were enacted during his administration, 
were needed, that they tended to throw additional 
safeguards around the dangerous occupation of coal 


€1 


mining, and in the interest not alone of the 70,000 
men who find employment in that industry in Illi¬ 
nois, but In the behalf of a better society, has been 
and is committed to such a legislative policy and 
to that end has thrown the influence of his great 
office in line with protective laws. 

It is one of the most hopeful signs of our day 
when men like Governor Deneen, holding high, re¬ 
sponsible positions of trust in our state government 
are not only able, but what is more, willing to co¬ 
operate in the great work of economic emancipa¬ 
tion. 

The working men, after years of indifference, 
give promise of awaking to their real interests. 
Regardless of politics we must hereafter demon¬ 
strate in a substantial way our appreciation of the 
services of men who have proved to be. our friends. 


62 


CHAPTER XrV. 

Board of Prison Industries. 


Governor Deneen in his inaugural message dis¬ 
cussed the necessity of providing larger oppor¬ 
tunities for the employment of persons in. the 
Btate penal institutions. The Prison Industries 
law, enacted in 1903, provided for the abolition of 
the old contract labor system and the establish¬ 
ment in the penitentiaries and State Reformatory 
of new industries to be conducted with a view to 
the sale of the products, not as under the con¬ 
tract system upon the open market, but to a great 
extent to the other State institutions. The prison 
industries law provides for the sale of 40 per cent 
of the product of the prison industries upon the 
open market. The statistics of prison industries 
show, however, that but 29 per cent was thus dis¬ 
posed of during 1907. The new system was in¬ 
augurated on January 1st, 1905. The total value 
of products from the date of its inauguration to 
June 1st, 1908, was $2,802,066.42. 

At the State Penitentiary at Joliet and the 
Southern Illinois Penitentiary at Menard there 
have been established under the supervision of the 
Board of Prison Industries plants for the manu¬ 
facture of crushed stone for road material. Under 
the prison industries law this road material is fur¬ 
nished upon application free to road districts 
throughout the State, upon their agreement to lay 
the stone upon a public highway within the dis¬ 
trict within a period of one year from the date 
of its delivery. Seventy-five per cent of the total 
output of the stone crushing plant at Chester 
Penitentiary is furnished to road districts for this 
purpose. 

The establishment of this industry has furnished 
a large amount of work to prisoners, which is 
practically exempt from the evil of competition 
with free labor. 

Lime Stone Dust As a Fertilizer. 

Another interesting and important. feature of 
the work of the stone-crushing plants is the pro¬ 
duction of limestone dust to be used as a fertilizer 
upon the acid soils in the southern counties of the 
State. In twenty-three of these counties the fer¬ 
tility of an area of 6,000,000 acres is seriously 
impaired by the presence of an excess of acid in 
the soil. It has been discovered through investi¬ 
gations conducted by the Agricultural Experiment 
Station of the State University that this acidity 
can be cured by the application of lime-stone dust. 
This will be the means of greatly increasing crop 
production in this large area. The limestone dust 
is furnished at a nominal cost to farmers who 
apply for it, namely, 60 cents per ton in bulk and 
75 cento per ton in sacks. 


Cl 


CHAPTER XV. 

State Board of Health. 

Gratifying progress has been made in the work 
of the State Board of Health during the past 
four years. 

Through the efforts of this organization, w'hich 
has become the Medical Department of the State 
Government, benefits to the public of'the greatest 
magnitude have been attained. 

The system of sanitary inspection inaugurated 
by the State Board of Health a few years ago has 
been so perfected that municipal and local health 
authorities everywhere throughout the State can 
at all times receive the prompt assistance of the 
Board in the suppression of insanitary and un¬ 
wholesome conditions; in battling with the invasion 
of disease; and in the maintenance of necessary 
quarantine. A corps of competent medical in¬ 
spectors is constantly engaged in visiting every 
section of the state, assisting local authorities. 

The laboratory of the State. Board of Health, 
created by an act of the present, the 45th Gen¬ 
eral Assembly, is maintained for the early diag¬ 
nosis of contagious and infectious diseases. Its 
services are given without cost to the people of 
the State. There is no longer occasion for a 
physician remaining in doubt as to the exact 
character of the disease confronting him. The 
State Board of Health stands ready to assist him. 
The service is performed free of all charge to his 
patient. 

Within the past year especially important and 
noteworthy progress has been made in the sup¬ 
pression of diphtheria in the State. Through the 
recommendation of the State Board of Health, 
approved by Governor Deneen, in his biennial 
message to the 41st General Assembly, the State 
has appropriated the sum of $30,000 for the pur¬ 
chase and free distribution of diphtheria antitoxili 
throughout the State. This appropriation was not 
made for charitable purposes, but for the purpose 
of restricting and preventing the spread of a disease 
which has prevailed in the State since its earliest 
settlement. Everyone, rich and poor alike, is 
entitled to the benefit of this appropriation. The 
poor man who cannot well purchase antitoxin, and 
the man of ordinary means who often can ill 
afford the expenditure necessary for the antitoxin 
required in the treatment of his children, have 
only to go to a station of the State Board of 
Health, of which there are over two hundred in 
the State, to secure free of all cost such quanti¬ 
ties as they may require. The antitoxin is of the 
best quality and is provided in such form as will 
permit immediate use, as is done in no other State 
in the Union. This provision for the protection 
of the people will unquestionably reduce the 
mortality and prevalence of diphtheria, and, in 


84 


time, may practically eradicate the disease in Illi¬ 
nois. 

Of great value also in the prevention of dis¬ 
ease throughout the state has been the free in¬ 
vestigation of public and private water supplies, 
inaugurated by the State Board of Health in 
connection with the State Water Survey, during 
the past two years. Provision is now made for 
the examination of water samples from either 
public or private sources, and the results of those 
examinations have had the effect, in many in¬ 
stances, of pointing out sources of danger and of 
preventing the invasion and spread of typhoid 
fever and other water-borne diseases. This ex¬ 
tremely valuable and important service is offered 
free' of all charge, without any restriction or quali¬ 
fication, to every citizen of the State, who is 
privileged to send a sample of water to the 
Board for analysis. 

Lodging House Inspection. 

Under the provisions of the statutes the State 
Board of Health is charged with the supervision 
of the cubic air space of all lodging houses, tav¬ 
erns, boarding houses, inns and hotels in cities of 
100,000 population or over within the State. In 
the execution of this act the Board maintains in 
the city of Chicago, a corps of lodging house in¬ 
spectors under the charge of a chief inspector, 
through the efforts of whom all underground lodg¬ 
ings and all lodgings utilizing “double-deck” and 
“treble-deck” cots or bunks and all lodgings fail¬ 
ing to provide proper and sufficient air space to 
their patrons, have been abolished. While lim¬ 
ited as to power and authority in the supervision 
of lodging houses, it has been possible not only 
to secure proper air space, but also to influence 
other important improvements in the general sani¬ 
tary conditions of these habitations. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

State Architect. 

The department of the State Architect has been 
one of the most active during the present adminis¬ 
tration. The work of rehabilitating the State 
Institutions has been largely responsible for this 
activity. Since assuming his office, the present 
State Architect has designed and erected every 
imaginable type of building, structure and im¬ 
provement for various State purposes, ranging 
from a root cellar to a Temple of Justice and in¬ 
cluding store houses, dormitories, schools, cottages, 
hospitals, chapels, gymnasiums, wells, dining 
rooms, infirmaries, park pavilions, exposition build¬ 
ings, park entrances, field houses, monuments, bar¬ 
racks, armories, stables, swimming pools, power 
houses, and heating, ventilation and sewer and 
drainage systems. 



This varied and extensive work accomplished by 
the State Architect since assuming office not quite 
three years ago required an outlay of State funds 
of nearly $3,000,000. In the letting of contracts 
involving so large an expenditure, it was of the 
utmost importance that the freest opportunity be 
afforded to contractors to bid for the work. This 
desirable object was attained to a remarkable de¬ 
gree under the present administration of this of¬ 
fice. To accomplish it, a special effort was made 
by the department in writing specifications for 
the work to word them so definitely as to call for 
the best materials and, at the same time, make 
them so broad as not to limit the bidder to any 
special make or brand. A full and close compe¬ 
tition was developed in this way with a large sav¬ 
ing to the State which was time and again ap¬ 
parent. In many instances, public work was let 
for less than was forecast by a careful estimate 
of cost based on the cost of similar buildings 
erected for private citizens—a most unusual ex¬ 
perience with public work. 

On the new Supreme Court Building now being 
completed in Springfield no less than fourteen gen¬ 
eral bidders submitted estimates with prices rang¬ 
ing from $148,000.00 to $181,877.00. This very 
favorable competition was repeated when the in¬ 
terior finishing of the building was contracted for. 

For the extensive repairs and improvements un¬ 
dertaken on the State Capitol a similarly satis¬ 
factory competition took place. Detailed esti¬ 
mates had been prepared some years ago of the 
cost of this work, and an appropriation based on 
this estimate was very decidedly reduced, so that 
the funds available for the purpose seemed to 
some hopelessly insufficient. Nevertheless, through 
the usual and close competition which was secured, 
figures were obtained and contracts let which not 
only kept the cost within the appropriation, but 
left quite a substantial balance in the treasury. 
Thus, the new copper roof for which there was an 
appropriation of $65,000.00 was contracted for at 
$48,583.00; while for the plumbing and heating, 
for which $7,500.00 and $34,900.00 were available, 
was completed for $5,754.00 and $28,013.00 re¬ 
spectively. 

It should be pointed out that this fortunate 
state of affairs would have been impossible with¬ 
out the help and support of the administration. 
Public competition of this satisfactory character 
is possible only when competing builders and ma¬ 
terial men are assured that there is to be a square 
deal, that influence of one kind or another will 
have nothing to do with the aw^arding of a con¬ 
tract, but that the lowest responsible bidder is cer¬ 
tain to receive the work. Not in a single in¬ 
stance has there been a contract let on account of 
favoritism or influence, and when there was the 
faintest indication of political or other influence 
being brought to bear the administration made it 
a point to see to it that there was an equal op¬ 
portunity for all. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Geological Survey. 

In Governor Deneen’s inaugural message he 
strongly recommended the organization of an ef¬ 
ficient Geological Survey. The Forty-fourth Gen¬ 
eral Assembly in 3905 passed the necessary legis¬ 
lation creating such a bureau and appropriated 
$25,000 annually for its support. 

The Commission was conjpleted by the appoint¬ 
ment of Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, of Chicago, one 
of the most eminent geologists in America and 
for many years director of similar work, to act 
with President James, of the University, and Gov¬ 
ernor Deneen, ex-ofl&cio members. As director of 
the survey Dr, H. F. Bain was chosen, being called 
to the position from the Federal Governmeid; serv¬ 
ice because of his long experience in this work 
in Iowa and in Washington. With him were ap¬ 
pointed as associates a number of the most emi¬ 
nent geologists and engineers of the State, and 
from time to time temporary appointments have 
been made as occasion arose. 

The object of the Geological Survey is to make 
complete studies of the geology and mineral re¬ 
sources of the State with a view to their efiScient 
and economical development. In 1906 the total 
value of the mineral output of the State was 
$121,000,000. In 3907 preliminary figures indi¬ 
cate that the total was approximately $143,000,- 
000. This rapid expansion wajrrants the expendi¬ 
ture of a reasonable sum to secure efficiency and 
devise means for preventing waste. One of the 
means adopted by the Geological Survey is the 
making of accurate topographic maps which are 
at the same time available for a wide range of 
engineering purposes. These maps are being made 
on a basis of the Federal Government paying 
half the cost. Twelve such maps have been com¬ 
pleted and issued and eight ipore are partially 
complete. Seven bulletins have so far been is¬ 
sued by the Survey. They deal with the coal, 
clay, cement materials and other resources of the 
State, and five more of these bulletins are ready 
for printing. The principal results so far are: 

Studies of the exact character, thickness and 
distribution of the coal beds, including sampling 
and analyses, measurements of thickness and cal¬ 
culating of depth in undeveloped territory. 

. Investigation, in cooperation with the Engineer¬ 
ing Experiment Station of the University, of the 
fuel value of coals, the better methods of burning, 
the prevention of smoke, the effect of washing, 
the effect of weathering and the determination 
of economical methods of storage. Studies are 
now being made of methods of preventing spon¬ 
taneous combustion of coal in storage piles. 

Preliminary studies of accidents in coal mines 
and the effect of gases. 

Studies of the fire clays of the State, resulting 
in the discovery of large quantities of high grade 
material of previously unappreciated value. In 
connection with these studies a careful study has 


17 


been made of the paving brick olayg th® State, 
with the result of finding additional material of 
.value and suggestions for improvements in meth¬ 
ods of manufacture. As brick must be the pav¬ 
ing material for most Elinois cities and towns, 
this is especially important. 

The discovery, in connection with the Agricul¬ 
ture Experiment Station, of large bodies of lime¬ 
stone suitable for the treatment of acid soils of 
the southern part of the State. 

The discovery, mapping and testing of large 
quantities of materials suitable for the manufac¬ 
ture of Portland cepient. The possibilities for 
increased use of this material is now just beeom- 
ing apparent with the introduction of concrete 
building construction. Examples of such build¬ 
ings are found all over the State. The material 
has bq^n employed notably in the construction 
of buildings recently erected in the Chicago Park 
Systems. They are also to be employed in the 
construction of the new penitentiary, for the site 
of which an appropriation of $500,000 was passed 
by the last General Assembly. 

The mapping and study of the newly discov¬ 
ered oil fields of the State, which last year pro¬ 
duced nearly 25,000,000 barrels of oil. In pros¬ 
pecting for oil and gas it is particularly impor¬ 
tant to have full knowledge of the underground 
structure, and from such meager data as were 
available for the work the Geological Survey wac 
able in its first report on the oil district to point 
out the direction of future development. 

The study, in cooperation with the State Water 
Survey, of the .wa.ter supply available for towns, 
villages and manufacturing plants, especially bene¬ 
ficial to cities and towns planning to drill for ar¬ 
tesian waters. 

The preparation for use in the schools of special 
reports and maps. 

The survey, in connection with the Internal Im¬ 
provement Commi^ion and the National Govern¬ 
ment, of the various rivers and the lands subject 
to overflow with a view to stream improvement, 
for power, navigation and land reclamation pur¬ 
poses. It is estimated that in the bottom lands 
of the State to be reclaimed and protected from 
overflow there will be added to the taxable values 
of the State more than $100,000,000 above the 
cost of doing the work, besides resulting benefits 
from health improvement throughout the areas re¬ 
covered. 

The value of the work done by the Geological 
burvey has been conspicuous, and in Governor 
Geneen s biennial message he recommended an in¬ 
creased appropriation for the continuance of its 
labors. The Forty-fifth General Assembly con¬ 
tinued its appropriations and added $15,000 for a 
special survey of the streams. 


6S 


CHAPTER XVTTT. 


Internal Improvement Commission. 

At the 1905 session of the General Assembly a 
law was enacted providing for the appointment 
of an Internal Improvement Commission. The act 
provided that the Commission “should investigate 
the various problems associated with a projected 
deep waterway from Lake Michigap to the Gulf 
of Mexico, and the reclamation of lands subject 
to overflow or inundation.” It was provided that 
the Commission should consist of “three persons 
of high practical business qualifications.” As 
members of this Commission the" following were 
appointed: Mr. Isham Randolph, of Chicago, Chief 
Engineer of the Sanitary District of Chicago; 
Mr. Henry M. Schmoldt, of Beardstown, and Mr. 
H. W. Johnson, of Ottawa. Mr. Randolph has 
been engaged in engineering work for years, and 
is one of the^foremost engineers in the United 
States today. For sixteen years he has acted as 
Chief Engineer of the Sanjtary District of Chi¬ 
cago, and it was under his supervision that the 
Chicago Drainage Canal was constructed. Mr. 
Schmoldt is engaged in the lumber business and 
has an intimate knowledge of river navigation, 
especially that of the Illinois River throughout its 
navigable length, acquired in the conduct of his 
lumber operations. Mr. Johnson is an attorney 
by profession, has occupied the bench, and is now 
engaged in banking. 

Upon the organization of the Board, Mr. Ran¬ 
dolph was elected chairman and Mr. Lyman E. 
Cooley, of Chicago, was appointed secretary. Mr. 
Cooley is one of the most prominent civil en¬ 
gineers in the country, and was closely associated 
with the plans for the construction of the Sani¬ 
tary District Canal in the formative period of 
the work. Much of Mr. Cooley’s life work along 
engineering lines has been in connection with 
waterways and hydraulics, and he is preeminently 
fitted for the work to which he has been called 
by the Commission. 

The law creating • the Internal Improvement 
Commission provided that a report of its investi¬ 
gations and conclusions should be submitted to 
the next session of the General Assembly. Before 
the convening of that session the report had been 
forwarded to the Governor by the Commission. 
It was a most comprehensive recital of the pres¬ 
ent condition and future possibilities of develop¬ 
ment of Illinois waterways'. It showed the entire 
feasibility of establishing water communication 
between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico 
through the construction of a fourteen-foot chan¬ 
nel from the present terminus of the .Chicago 
Drainage and Ship Canal to the Mississippi River 
at St. Louis, by way of the Desplaines and Illi¬ 
nois Rivers. 

In transmitting the report to the General As¬ 
sembly Governor Deneen addressed to that body 
a special message calling attention to some of 
its more important features, and especially to that 


feature of the report which showed the possibili¬ 
ties of water power development in connection 
with the proposed waterway construction. 

The report of the Commission showed that be¬ 
tween Lockport and Utica, a distance of 63% 
miles, there was a descent of 136 feet, creating 
water power aggregating 173,000 horsepower. Com¬ 
menting on this the Governor’s message said: 

The report of the Commission,further points out 
that with the large flow of water proposed there 
can be developed between Lockport and Utica 173,- 
000 available horsepower, worth at present market 
prices $25 per annum per horsepower. This would 
be a valuable source of revenue whicdi, through 
proper legislative action, could be secured for the 
State instead of being diverted to the use and 
benefit of private enterprises. To this end, I rec¬ 
ommend that legislation be enacted conferring upon 
the Canal Commissioners the powers necessary for 
the development, use and distribution of this 
waterpower, and that no construction of dams by 
private parties for the creation of water power for 
their use be permitted without a permit, to be 
granted by the Governor upon the approval and 
recommendation of the Canal Commissioners, and 
upon terms making due provision fdr compensation 
to the State for the use of any such water power. 

This feature of thd report of the Internal Im¬ 
provement Commission later became the subject 
of legislative attention in connection with the sub¬ 
ject of deep waterway legislation. The sugges¬ 
tion in Governor Deneen’s message to the General 
Assembly that the enormous water power to be 
developed through the expenditure of public money 
should be preserved to the State “instead of being 
diverted to the use and benefit of private enter¬ 
prises” was the first recommendation embodying 
the idea that the development of water power could 
be made to pay for the construction of the water¬ 
way. The carrying out of such a plan would not 
only relieve the taxpayers of the burden of addi¬ 
tional taxation to construct the waterway but 
would provide, free of cost to the State, a mag¬ 
nificent commercial waterway and a constant 
source of income in the water power created, 
amounting to more than $3,500,000 per year. 

It was evident, therefore, that, provided the 
State is permitted to retain the water power to be 
created by the expenditure public money, the 
State, in authorizing the issuance of the twenty 
million dollars in bonds, will be simply loaning 
its credit without incurring any real obligation. 
Moreover, the physical geography of the State 
furnishes abundant waterway opportunities for the 
profitable expenditure of the income from this 
source after the retirement of the bonds. With 
it the State would be able to canalize rivers, bring¬ 
ing our domestic waterways as avenues of com¬ 
merce on a par with those of Germany and France. 

We now have 870 miles of river and lake front. 
By canalizing the rivers of the State and digging 
canals between them at suitable points, the en¬ 
gineers report that they can add two thousand 
miles of barge canals to the navigable waterways 
of the State. 

It must be remembered that formerly the head 
of navigation on the Wabash Eiver was at Carmi; 
on the Big Muddy at Murphysboro; on the Kas- 


78 


kaskia at Vandalia; on the Sangamon at Peters¬ 
burg. Because of lack of attention the navigation 
of these streams has gradually deteriorated. This 
navigation can be restored, however, by the ex¬ 
penditure of part of the money secured from the 
utilization of water power if the contention of the 
State 'is sustained. 

It w^as the ascertained fact that the resulting 
water power would more than repay the cost of 
construction of the proposed waterway, which was 
made the basis of the joint resolution of the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly, providing for submission to the 
voters at the coming general election of a con¬ 
stitutional amendment permitting the issuance of 
$20,000,000 in bonds to provide for the construc¬ 
tion of the deep waterway and the development 
of water power incident thereto. 

The attempt to secure the legislation necessary 
to preserve this water power for the State, in the 
manner suggested in Governor Deneen’s message, 
was met at every step by the most determined op¬ 
position. Perhaps the most strenuous opposition 
encountered by this legislation had its origin in 
the private interests of a corporation engaged in 
the business of water power production-r-the 
Economy Light and Power Company. As time 
passed the reason for this opposition became mani¬ 
fest. As heretofore stated, the proposed waterway 
construction involved the use of the Chicago Drain¬ 
age Channel and the Desplaines and Illinois 
Eivers. The attempt to secure legislation to pro¬ 
hibit the construction of dams across these streams 
brought out the fact that this company had se¬ 
cured possession of lands at Dresden Heights with- v 
in four hundred feet of the mouth of the Des¬ 
plaines River and was engaged in the construction 
at that point of a dam with a view to the ab¬ 
straction of a large part of the water power to 
be created through the expenditure of public 
money. 

In order the more effectually to secure them¬ 
selves in the enjoyment of these advantages the 
Economy Light and Power Company was pushing 
this dam construction work as rapidly as possi¬ 
ble. Information was had that the contractors 
engaged in the work were under contract to com¬ 
plete it before July 1, 1908, the earliest date upon 
which legislation to prevent such dam construc¬ 
tion could become effective. To meet this situ¬ 
ation Governor Deneen again on. November 6, 
1908, addressed the General Assembly in a message 
calling attention to the work going on at Dresden 
Heights and its proposed completion before pre¬ 
ventive legislation could become opetative. In 
this connection the Governor said: 

“The significance of this action is plain and the 
consummation of this manifest attempt to secure 
vested rights inimical to the publjc interests and 
fatal to the success of the constitutional amend¬ 
ment program of the General Assembly in refer¬ 
ence to waterway and w^ater power development 
should be, prevented. This can only be done ef¬ 
fectually through the passage of emergency legis¬ 
lation which will enable the State now to assert 



and determine its rights in the premises. This is 
necessary not only for the protection of the rights 
of the public but also for the proper definition 
and protection of the rights of the private inter¬ 
ests concerned.” 

After a prolonged discussion of the questions 
thus raised an emergency measure was passed by 
the General Assembly directing the Governor and 
the Attorney General to take the necessary legal 
steps to remove the obstructions from the naviga¬ 
ble streams of the State. Suit was at once insti¬ 
tuted against the Economy Light and Power Com¬ 
pany to secure the removal of its dam at Dresden 
Heights. 

After a prolonged hearing the Dresden Heights 
case was decided adversely to the State’s conten¬ 
tions by Hon. Julian Mack, one of the judges of 
the Circuit Court of Cook County. The case has 
been appealed to the Supreme Court and will be 
presented to that tribunal at an early date. Should 
the Supreme Court aflSrm the decision of the Cir¬ 
cuit Court of Cook County it will have an impor¬ 
tant bearing on the waterway movement in -thfs 
State. Whatever the outcome, however, it is mani¬ 
fest that the interests of the public in the water¬ 
ways of the State have been carefully guarded 
by the present administration and that as far as 
possible the rights of the people have been pro¬ 
tected by appropriate executive, legislative and 
judicial action. 

Our State is the pioneer State in urging the 
proposition that water power should dig the water¬ 
-way, and the fact that we now have a law on 
the statute books enabling the Governor and At¬ 
torney General to take such action as will finally 
determine the rights of the State in this regard 
is due to the zeal and efforts of Governor Deneen. 


CHAPTEE XIX. 

Illinois Highway Commission. 

The Forty-fourth General Assembly in 1905 
passed an act establishing a State Highway Com¬ 
mission, whose duty it should be to investigate 
and carry on experimental work in road building*, 
using different* methods of construction and vari¬ 
ous materials on different soil conditions, and who 
should also study present methods of road work 
and, upon request, advise local officials both in 
townships and cities as to road and bridge con¬ 
struction. 

The Governor appointed on this Commission 
Dr. Edmund J. James, President of the University 
of Illinois; Mr. J. E. Fulgerson, Jerseyville, who 
is closely identified with the stock raising inter¬ 
ests of the State, and Mr. Lafayette Funk, of 
Bloomington, one of the most extensive and best 
known farmers in the State. 

The plans of the Commission were formulated, 
in accordance with the duties hnd restrictions im- 



posed upon it by law, to seek and suggest such 
changes in the present methods and adoption of * 
new methods as will result in greater returns to 
the taxpayers throughout the State from the pres¬ 
ent expenditures for road and bridge purposes. 

It is estimated there are about 94,000 miles of 
public highway in the State. About $5,000,000 
per year is paid for the maintenance of roads and 
bridges. To insure the wisest expenditure of this 
money has been the aim and purpose of the State 
Highway Commission. From the great preponder¬ 
ance of earth roads the proper methods of main¬ 
taining this character of road have been especially 
emphasized and were first taken up. To this end 
100,000 bulletins on the use ^of the road drag have 
been issued. Its purpose has been explained at 
over 140 Farmers’ Institutes and at numerous 
other meetings to which speakers have been fur¬ 
nished by the Commission. As a result there is 
no considerable section of the State where one 
will not discover a section of road which has been 
maintained by this simple but effective method, 
whereas two years ago, before the Commission be¬ 
gan its work, this method was scarcely known with¬ 
in the State. The Commission estimates that not 
less than 15,000 drags have been put in use and 
that considerably more than this number of miles 
have been so maintained this past season. 

The Commission has considered next in impor¬ 
tance to the proper making and maintenance of 
earth roads permanent and properly designed 
bridges, which will insure, first, the public safety, 
and, second, bridges which cost only a reasonable 
sum. Bridge plans, estimates and specifications 
have been prepared whenever requested by local 
officials. Particular attention has been given to 
the construction of permanent concrete bridges 
to replace the temporary but expensive structures 
that it has been the custom hitherto to build. 

There have been a total of 243 requests for 
bridge plans received. Plans and estimates have 
been furnished for 224 bridges, and there have 
been built or are under contract 92 bridges. This 
feature of the work of the Commission is prov¬ 
ing of special benefit to people of all sections 
of the State. 

With the aid of convict labor a 40-foot span, 
18-foot roadway, reinforced concrete bridge has 
been built at the Menard Penitentiary for the pur¬ 
pose of testing. This, it is believed, is the largest 
structure of this character built for testing. By 
employing convict labor it has been possible to 
make this test at a cost of but a few hundred dol¬ 
lars for materials, when otherwise a test of this 
character would cost several thousand dollars. 

The fact that nearly half the money raised 
for roads and bridges, or something over $2,000,- 
000, is spent annually on bridges shows the rela¬ 
tive importance of this pha^e of the highway prob¬ 
lem. 

Under the law which provides that the convicts 
shall prepare crushed stone to be furnished free 
of charge to the townships, the Commission has 
been enabled to construct a number of experi- 


73 


mental macadam roads and to show bj practical 
demonstration the adaptability of this form of 
construction under various soil conditions, the cost 
thereof and the possible usefulness of this char¬ 
acter of road, particularly in sections of the State 
where hitherto these roads had not been built. 

Including three earth roads, twenty-three ex¬ 
perimental roads have been built or are at pres¬ 
ent under construction. 

This method of employing the convicts com¬ 
bines perhaps more advantages than could be 
found in any' other occupation to which they 
could successfully be put. It overcomes the ob¬ 
jection that the employment of convicts is,^nter- 
fering with existing industries, from the fact 
that the State is really creating an industry rather 
than interfering with any existing industry by 
the distribution of this crushed stone. 

The prison labor does not interfere with free 
labor, but, on the contrary, creates so much greater 
demand for free labor in preparing the roads and 
spreading the material produced by convict la¬ 
bor. From the fact that the cost of housing, 
feeding and guarding the prisoners is practically 
the same whether they are idle or working, the 
stone crushing is done at practically no in¬ 
creased cost to the taxpayers, and thus one sfee- 
tion of the State is not taxed for* the benefit of 
another, making this perhaps the most equitable 
plan that could be devised. The fact that the 
convicts can be kept together within inclosures 
does not have the objection that is found to work¬ 
ing the convicts in the open on the roads them¬ 
selves, and does not add to the cost of keeping 
the convicts; at the same time it is possible to 
maintain perfect discipline while giving outdoor 
work to the prisoners, which is a very desirable 
feature. 

Crushing plants have been established at both 
the Joliet and Chester penitentiaries. In 1906 
40,000 cubic yards of stone were distributed to 
townships, and in addition 2,770 cubic yards were, 
delivered*to railroads for ballast in payment of 
freight. Total amount sent out, 42,770 cubic 
yards. In 1907 there was a total of 77,000 yards 
shipped to townships, and in addition 21,000 yards 
w’ere furnished to the railroads as ballast in pay¬ 
ment of freight on some of the shipments, mak- 
ihg a total output of 98,000 yards. In 1907 ap¬ 
plications were received for crushed rock from 
seventy-three road districts and townships situ¬ 
ated in thirty-nine counties. 

The work of the Commission is educational, to 
the end that a more lively interest on the part of 
the taxpayers may be aroused to demand better 
results from the money they are now actually 
spending for roads and bridges. 

Certain persons have endeavored to create a 
prejudice against this Commission in certain sec¬ 
tions of the State by charging that its work i.s 
the entering wedge of a hard road and State aid 
program. Answering these charges Governor De- 
neen said in his biennial message of 1907: 


74 


V, ^ ( 

In soihe parts of the State, certain unduly sus¬ 
picious persons have charged that the Highway 
Commission is but the entering wedge of a hard 
road and State aid movement to be inaugurated 
by the State. There is no foundation whatever for 
such suspicion. The State is enabled, by reason 
of unemployed labor in our penitentiaries and the 
fact that all freight charges are paid in crushed 
stone, to furnish free of cost, either to itself or 
to the road districts, this material for road con¬ 
struction. It Js also a fact that enough of such 
material has been sold on the open market ma¬ 
terially to contribute to the cost of the construction 
of the crushers and their operation. The Commis¬ 
sion has not advocated and does not propose to 
advocate a hard road and State aid policy, but is 
devoting its energy to the improvement of the 
earth roads of the State. 




CHAPTER XX. 

State dame Department. 

Previous to Governor Deneen’s administration 
the salary of the State Game Commissioner was 
paid from the general appropriation fund for 
State officers. The strict enforcement of the game 
law under the present administration has sp large¬ 
ly increased the revenue of the department from 
the sale of hunters’ licenses and other sources that 
the salary of the Game Commissioner is now paid 
from the game fund, relieving the general tax¬ 
payer of the State from that burden. 

From 1905 down to the present time no appro¬ 
priations have been made for the salaries of any 
of the officers of the game department and each 
year a surplus has been left in the game fund. 
In addition, a State Game Propagation Farm, 
containing 325 acres, has been leased, equipped 
and stocked with all species of game birds, both 
domestic and foreign, suitable to this climate, and 
large importations of game birds and their eggs 
are made from foreign countries every year. As 
a result Illinois is now in the foremost rank among 
the States in the pioneer work of restocking de¬ 
pleted sections with game birds. Thousands of 
game birds and their eggs are distributed annually 
by the department, without expense to the tax¬ 
payer or to the persons receiving them. In the 
purchase, propagation and distribution of game 
animals, birds and eggs throughout Illinois $71,- 
160.97 ^s been expended since the commencement 
of the work under the Deneen administration in 
1905, an amount which covers the running ex¬ 
penses of the game farm, including salaries and 
materials for the construction of the wire en¬ 
closures and pens for retaining the birds and ani¬ 
mals. As other States are following the example 
of Hinois in game propagation it is believed by 
the department that the State Game Farm will be 
made partially, if not wholly; self-supporting next 
year. 


76 



1 / 

) 

CHAPTER XXL 

Fish Commission. 

The question of the protection and the means 
of perpetuation of food fish in our State is a sub¬ 
ject which is of interest to all citizens. Under 
Governor Deneen’s administration great advance¬ 
ment has been made. 

Over eighteen million pounds of fish were taken 
from the Illinois River alone last year, netting 
fishermen over six hundred thousand dollars and 
employing several thousand men. The report 
showing this result is only from twenty-one points 
on the Illinois River. 

The distribution of fish by the department this 
year has been very satisfactory. It is expected 
that the Commission will hereafter be able to meet 
all demands, as its capacity for collecting fish is 
much greater than ever before. Two new stations 
for the purpose of artificially propagating the dif¬ 
ferent varieties of fish have been established. The 
one at Havana is for the purpose of hatching out 
wall eyed pike or pike perch, a high class food 
fish that was formerly indigenous to the Illinois 
waters but is now very rare. Out of twenty-five 
million fertilized eggs received this season at this 
station from the United States Food Commission 
sixty-five per cent were hatched out and distributed 
In the following waters: 


Rock River, Oregon, Ill. 2,000,000 

Vermilion River, Danville, Ill. 2,000,000 

Deep Lake, Lake Villa, III. 2,000,000 

Quiver Lake, Near Havana, Ill. 3,000,000 

Matanzas Lake, Matanzas, Ill. 3,000,000 

Illinois River, Havana, Ill.. 3,000,000 


Total . 15,000,000 


From the station at Meredosia, which was estab¬ 
lished last year, several millions were distributed 
to different lakes in the northern part of the 
State. 

Preparations are being made to establish a fish 
liatchery at Waukegan, from which fish will be 
*listributed to the northern Illinois rivers and 
Jakes. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Live Stock Commission. 

The important duty of supervising the various 
phases of the live stock business of the State is 
entrusted to the Board of Live Stock Commission¬ 
ers. The Board consists of three commissioners 
and the State Veterinarian, all of whom are ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor. As now constituted the 
Board is made up of men thoroughly informed 
in regard to every branch of the live stock busi¬ 
ness. The chairman, one of the leading stock 
breeders and shippers in the State, has an exten- 
.sive acquaintance among stock men and is an au- 


76 










thority upon animal husbandry. Of the other 
members of the Board one is a specialist in mat¬ 
ters pertaining to horses and mules, whilst the 
other is a regularly licensed veterinarian and 
brings with him to the service of the State a long 
experience and training in that profession. 

The. present State Veterinarian, Dr. J. M. 
Wright, Professor of Contagious Diseases, Sani¬ 
tation and Obstetrics at the Chicago Veterinary 
College, is one of the most successful veterinary 
surgeons in the State, with an extensive practice 
in Chicago and a high reputation throughout the 
country as an authority on contagious and in¬ 
fectious diseases of domestic animals. The State 
Veterinarian is assisted by an able corps of as¬ 
sistants, who have been educated in the standard 
veterinary schools of this and other countries, and 
are skilled in their profession. 

Great advancement has been recently made both 
in the efl&ciency and extent of the work of the 
Live Stock Commission. A comparison of the 
records of the department for the last twelve 
months with that for the preceding twelve months 
show's an increase of over tifty per cent in the 
number of cases inspected, with a remarkable de¬ 
crease in the cost of inspection. 

This improvement in the work of the Commis¬ 
sion has resulted largely from the adoption of im¬ 
proved methods of administration. The present 
Board upoi\ assuming control of the affairs of 
this department found that the State of Illinois 
had lost caste with the live stock authorities of 
other States and foreign countries. To so great 
an extent had the work of the department de¬ 
teriorated that its official certificates were dis¬ 
credited. The situation demanded radical action, 
and a new corps of assistant veterinarians was 
appointed. At the present time, in the excellence 
of its corps of live stock inspectors, Dlinois stands 
second to none. 

The erection of a State Veterinary College in 
Chicago has been provided for under the direction 
of the University of Illinois. For the mainte¬ 
nance of this college as a department of the Uni¬ 
versity $30,000 was pr 9 vided by the Forty-fifth 
General Assembly upon the recommendation of 
(xovernor Deneen. Prominent business men of 
Chicago contributed $250,000 for buildings, and 
the Chicago Union Stock Yards and Transit Com¬ 
pany donated a building site fronting east on 
Halsted street at Forty-third street. The work 
outlined for this college by President Edmund J. 
James, of the State University, will do much to 
advance the art of veterinary surgery in this 
State and incidentally will advantageously affect 
the work of the State Live Stock Commission. 
The work outlined for the college by President 
James covers: 

1st. The preparation of men for the practice of 
veterinary surgery. 

2d. The preparation of candidates for the pro¬ 
fession of meat inspectors in this and other states, 

3d. Scientific research and investigation into the 
problems of nutrition, human and animal, and 
problefos connected with the preparation of market 
and meat products. 


77 


The magnitude of the live stock business of our 
State makes the steps taken for the advancenient 
of veterinary surgery and animal industry since 
the beginning of the present administration of the 
utmost importance and should commend them¬ 
selves to all interested in the live stock and kin¬ 
dred industries in this State. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

Pure Food Commission. 

The law creating the State Pood Commission 
went into effect July 1, 1899, but the penalties 
provided under it were suspended until July. 1, 
1900. The object of the Commission is to pre¬ 
vent adulteration and mislabeling of food and 
fraud generally in the manufacturing and sale 
of food products. 

The law of 1899 furnished very incomplete pro¬ 
tection against food adulteration. It contained 
no provision in regard to dairy products or for 
the regulation of the dairy industries of the 
State; nor was there anything in the law pro¬ 
hibiting the adulteration of spiritous, malt or 
vinous liquors. The food laws in effect at that 
time had never been revised and l3onsisted of 
eighteen acts extending back to 1845. Under this 
condition of the law it was contended that the 
law of 1899 creating the State Pood Commission 
repealed all former acts, thus rendering extreme¬ 
ly doubtful the success of prosecutions for vio¬ 
lations of the former statutes. 

On January 1, 1907, the national pure food law 
enacted at the preceding session of Congress went 
into effect. This law is very comprehensive and 
provides not only for regulation and control of the 
food products under the Interstate Commerce Law 
but also provides for uniformity of labels, rulings 
and standards. Prior to the passage of this law 
the laws in the different States were not uniform 
and there was no uniformity of action possible 
among the food officials of the various States.* 
There was furthermore no law regulating inter¬ 
state commerce in regard to foods and the manu¬ 
facturer or dealer was free to ship adulterated 
foods into neighboring States without fear of 
prosecution. • As a consequence Illinois, located 
almost centrally in the Union, became the dump¬ 
ing ground for adulterated and unwholesome 
foods. 

Such was the condition of food legislation when 
Governor Deneen, in his message of 1907, called 
the attention of the General Assembly to the de 
fects in the State food law and to the recent 
enactment of the national food law. The Gov¬ 
ernor’s message recommended a general revision 
of the State food law and suggested that the pro¬ 
posed revision should be along the lines of the na¬ 
tional food law and modeled after it. A new 
food law was accordingly prepared, drawn along 


?l 





7 


the lines of the national food law, and was enacted 
at the 1907 session of the General Assembly. Since 
that time Illinois has had the best food law of 
any State in the Union. 

Under the provisions of the new law the defi¬ 
nitions of adulterations of food and of substances 
entering into the composition of food are most 
stringent. The proper labeling of food is especial¬ 
ly provided for.' A Commission to fijs standards 
has been established and the Commissioner em¬ 
powered to make ruling and regulations controlling 
the preparation, manufacture and sale as well as 
the labeling of all food products of the State. 
The same Commissioner is also empowered to make 
regulations in regard to shipments of foods from 
other States, under the interstate commerce law, 
or from foreign countries. In addition, the State 
Food Department has been strengthened by addi¬ 
tional inspectors and chemists and by the appro¬ 
priation of funds for carrying on the work of 
inspection and analysis and the prosecution of 
violations of the law. 

During the past three years more than 10,000 
samples of food have been taken and reported 
to the office of the State Food Department, not 
taking into account tests made as to milk and 
dairy products. Of this number about 7,000 were 
found to be pure or to meet the requirements of 
the law, and about 3,000 were found to be adulter¬ 
ated. 

The rapid expansion of the manufacture and 
sale of commercial food products has increased 
the importance of the work of the department 
of food inspection and the revision of the Illinois 
food law and the maintenance of this department 
at the high standard of efficiency attained under 
the present administration is to be commended. 


CHAPTEB XXIV. 

Grain Inspection Department. 

The work of this department, in previous years 
subjected to marked criticism, has been recently 
much improved through the introduction of a sys¬ 
tem of postal card notifications by shippers of 
grain, directed to the central office of the depart¬ 
ment. Difficulty had been found in making satis¬ 
factory “track” inspections and the department 
had devised various plans for the improvement of 
the inspection service. One of these was the em¬ 
ployment of additional track inspectors; another 
was the establishment of a Department of Sam¬ 
pling to review the work of all inspectors. No 
provision having been made for the establishment 
of a sampling department, the Chief Grain In¬ 
spector last year devised the postal card notifica¬ 
tion system alluded to. 

The postal card sent by the shipper gives the 
date of shipment, car number, station shipped 
from, railroad on which the grain will arrive in 
Chicago, the name of the consignee and the grade 


79 



wMch the grain inspected upon shipment. The 
postal card is directed to che chief grain inspection 
ofl&ce, and bears the memorandum, “If grain does 
not inspect as indicated on card send sample to 
the Chief Grain Inspector,” 

This system went into effect February 2 of the 
present year, and has been received with great 
favor by shippers all over the State. Almost all 
who received the postal cards responded promptly 
with the information desired by the department. 

A record has been kept and it has been found 
that in eighty-four per cent of the inspections, 
where cards were received, the inspections subse¬ 
quently made by the department agreed with those 
made by the shipper. The result has been the 
creation of much better feeling between shippers 
and the department. 

The department has had a clean, business-like 
administration, and in the trying times of grain 
corners not one word of scandal has attached to 
its grain inspections. This is a notable record, 
and the administration of the Grain Offi.ce is meet¬ 
ing with more general approval from grain ship¬ 
pers than any administration in recent years. 

Eegarding the administration of the Grain Of¬ 
fice at East St. Louis the following letter from the 
Chairman of the Grain Committee of the Mer¬ 
chants’ Exchange of St. Louis was received by 
Mr. J. B. Stevenson, Deputy Chief Inspector at 
that point: 

June 17, 1908. 

J. B. Stevenson, Deputy Chief Inspector, 

St. Louis, Ill. 

Dear Sir:— 

The Grain Committee of the Merchants’ Ex¬ 
change is very anxious to continue the splendid 
showing of the St. Louis market the past two 
years. Our idea is a conference with your depart¬ 
ment that we may the better understand conditions 
which confront us from time to time that the in¬ 
terest of the grain trade may reap the benefits of 
a close and united effort on the part of the Ex¬ 
change and your departipent, our interests being 
identical. 

We appreciate your efforts in this direction and 
take this opportunity of thanking you and your 
department for your efforts, which have been more * 
satisfactory than the Exchange has experienced for 
several years past. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) J. L. Wright, 
Chairman Grain Committee. 

The inspections at the East St. Louis office, 
moreover, show an increase in 1907 of 7,000 cars • 
over 1906. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

State University. 

The State University has made more distinct 
progress in the last four years than in any other 
like period in its existence. It has passed from 
the list of second rate institutions into the rank 
of first rate institutions. It has become more 
than ever before the scientific arm of the State 
Government. The expert knowledge to be found 


80 




in its faculties has been made more immediately 
serviceable for the improvement of State admin¬ 
istration than at any former time. 

The Agricultural Experiment Station has en¬ 
larged and improved its work, greatly to the bene¬ 
fit of the farmers of the commonwealth, while 
the Engineering Experiment Station has for the 
first time beep organized along sound and ra¬ 
tional lines and equipped to do for the industries 
of the State the same kind of service as the Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station has done for agri¬ 
culture. 

Improvements have been made in the equip¬ 
ment and construction of every department of 
the University. 

The Law School has been greatly improved to 
the end that the general level of legal education 
in practice shall be raised throughout the State 
and the way thus opened for a new and higher era 
in the administration of justice and the framing 
of legislation. 

The establishment of the Graduate School for 
the first time upon a new and effective basis dur¬ 
ing this administration has energized and fructi¬ 
fied every branch of instruction in the institu¬ 
tion, and has secured for the first time in its 
history that recognition for the work of the in¬ 
stitution in other States and other countries which 
is necessary for its most effective service to the 
people of this State. 

That this work has been appreciated by the 
people of the State is shown by the remarkable 
increase in attendance at the University during 
the past four years. The enrollment, now of 
4,763, will for the coming year doubtless exceed 
5,000, and the University of Illinois will be num¬ 
bered among the score of the greatest institutions 
of higher learning in the world. 

The University has become during this adminis¬ 
tration, as never before, the University of the 
whole State; it is no longer chiefly confined in its 
influence to the corn belt region but is reaching 
every county in the State. 

The policy of this administration is to make 
this institution so complete in its organization and 
equipment that no son or daughter of Illinois will 
be obliged to seek in other States or other coun¬ 
tries those advantages of higher education which 
are necessary to the highest efficiency of social 
service either in public or private station. 

' During the present administration one build- 
^ ing costing $100,000 has been added to the plant 
of the University and an appropriation of $400,- 
000 made for the erection of two additional build¬ 
ings. 


*1 




CHAPTER XXVI. 

Educational Commission. 

The last school census showed 1,143,107 resi¬ 
dents of the State between 6 and 21 years of age, 
and a school attendance of 983,921. The Illinois 
school system requires the services of 45,000 offi¬ 
cials and an expenditure for 1907 of $30,995,- 
208.77, nearly $14,500,000 of which is paid to 
teachers as wages. 

The Illinois school laws now comprise a general 
school law containing 301 sections; 37 special char¬ 
ters and supplementary acts and 21 additional 
acts, while more than 400 court decisions construe 
these various enactments. For the revising and 
systematizing of these numerous and often con¬ 
flicting school laws Governor Deneen, in his bi¬ 
ennial message, recommended the appointment of 
an Educational Commission to revise and codify 
the school laws of the State and report its find¬ 
ings to the Forty-sixth General Assembly. In ac¬ 
cordance with the recommendations of the message 
a measure was enacted providing for the appoint¬ 
ment of a Commission, and the Governor appointed 
as members of the Commission Dr. Edmund J. 
James, President of the State University; Dr. R. 
E. Hieronymus, President of Eureka College; 
Hon. Alfred Bayliss, Principal of Western Nor¬ 
mal School; Hon. E. G. Cooley, Superintendent 
of Schools, Chicago; Dr. A. F. Nightingale, County 
Superintendent of Cook County; Prof. Harry Tay¬ 
lor, Principal of Harrisburg Township High 
School. State Superintendent Blair is ex-officio 
a member of the Commission. 

It is the purpose of the Commission to pre¬ 
pare a revision of the school law which will make 
it fit the needs of the school system more fully 
than it now does not only in relation to studies 
at present taught but also as to the study of agri¬ 
cultural, industrial and vocational branches of edu¬ 
cation,^ so that the system will be better adapted 
to prepare young men and young women for their 
life work. 

The Commission is busily at work upon the 
task assigned it and no doubt its labors will re¬ 
sult in the revision of the school laws by the next 
session of the General Assembly. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

National Guard. 

Under the present administration the National 
Guard has been placed on the same footing as 
the regular army, both as to organization and 
equipment. The Guard now has divisional, 
brigade and regimental organization, in all re¬ 
spects the same as the regular arnjy. The armory 
equipment of the Guard has also been greatly im¬ 
proved, an appropriation of $150,000 being pro¬ 
vided for the erection of an armory for the Sev¬ 
enth Regiment, of $35,000 for a ground site for 


82 



1 

the Second Regiment armory, of $7,500 for a new 
boathouse for the Illinois Naval Reserve, and of 
$9,000 for additional land for the Camp Logan 
rifle range. In addition to this the ordinary and 
contingent expenses of the National Guard have 
been much better provided for than ever before. 
Last year one regiment of the Guard, the Second, 
visited the Indiana Encampment at Fort^'Senja- 
min Harrison, This year the First, Fourth and 
Eighth Regiments are to make a similar visit in 
September. 

Governor Deneen was the first Commander-in- 
Chief to place regular troops in the same camp 
with the National Guard troops during the en¬ 
campment of the National Guard. An example 
was thereby provided for the emulation of the 
State troops, which has resulted in great benefit 
to them. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

, Chicago Parks, 

Under the law the Governor of the State is 
charged with the appointment of Boards of Com¬ 
missioners to administer the great West_p,nd North 
Sides park systems of the city of Chicago. Early 
in the first year of his administration Governor 
Deneen reorganized the West Chicago Park Com¬ 
mission with a view to an extensive rehabilitation 
and improvement of the park and boulevard sys¬ 
tem under its control. During, the year 1905, 
shortly after its reorganization by the Governoi, 
the Board of Commissioners of the West Chicago 
Park System submitted to the Governor a plan 
for the acquisition and improvement of small 
parks and pleasure grounds and sought his assist¬ 
ance in securing the passage of bills authorizing 
the issuance and sale of $1,000,000 in bonds for 
that purpose. The question of the completion, 
improvement and maintenance of the public parks 
under the control of this Commission was also 
taken up-with the Governor at the same time and 
the submission to the General Assembly of a bill 
authorizing the issuance of $2,000,000 in bonds to 
carry out the work was decided upon. 

, Both bills were passed by the General Assem¬ 
bly and were approved by Governor Deneen, the 
small parks bond bill on May 18, 1905, and the 
West Park improvement and maintenance bond 
bill on May 11, 1905. 

Immediately thereafter a statement showing the 
purposes for which these bond issues were to be 
used was furnished to the public and at the elec¬ 
tion of November 7, 1905, their issuance was ap¬ 
proved by the voters. 

For many years prior to the passage of the 
legislation authorizing these bond issues no im¬ 
provement or extension of the West Park system 
had been made, and the condition into which the 
parks had fallen was deplorable. As stated in the 
report of the Commission, the boulevards of th® 


83 



system were impassable; it£f sidewalks broken and 
out of grade; trees dead and dying; shrubbery de¬ 
stroyed, and buildings all over the system tumbling 
down. Moreover, the system was financially bank¬ 
rupt, its credit w^as gone, and when the new West 
Park Commission was appointed by Governor De- 
neen it faced unpaid bills contracted by its prede¬ 
cessor amounting to $180,000, with taxes for the 
ensuing year anticipated by warrants drawn and 
outstanding against the tax levy. 

Within the two years and a half since elapsed 
a transformation has taken place in every branch 
of the system. Pinancially, the system has been 
placed upon a thoroughly sound basis, whilst the 
parks and boulevards themselves have been 
brought up to the highest standard of excellence. 
In the various parks constituting the West Park 
System splendid pavilions, greenhouses, flower 
houses, boat houses, lagoons, refectories and other 
structures have been erected. The plans and 
specifications for these were drawn by the State 
Architect, Mr. W. Carbys Zimmerman, and their 
design has proven in every instance a model of ar¬ 
tistic architecture. Some of these structures are 
of .enormous dimensions, the new greenhouse at 
Garfield Park being the largest in the world. It 
is not too much to say that the West Side parks 
have been rescued from a state of gradual decay 
and brought to a well-nigh perfect condition by 
the Board of West Chicago Park Commissioners 
during this administration. 

The boulevard system under the control of this 
Board has also witnessed a thorough rehabilita¬ 
tion. Space will not permit a description of the 
improvements effected. The following summary, 
however, will give an idea of the magnitude of the 
work accomplished during the past two and a half 
years: 

Concrete curb and combined curb and gutter con¬ 
structed, 23 miles. 

Asphalt pavement constructed, 10 miles. 

Macadam pavement and park driveways con¬ 
structed, 16 miles. 

New concrete walks laid, IG^^ miles. 

Walks re-set, 10 miles. 

Park walks rebuilt, 17% miles. 

Water service pipes laid, 14 miles. 

Sewers laid, 4% miles. 

Tile drains laid, 4 miles. 

Electric light conduit laid, 14% miles. 

Electric light cable installed, 6% miles. 

Total number of trees planted, 6,166. 

Total number of dead trees removed, 3,109. 

Total number of shrubs planted, 293,790. 

Black soil' used, 131,755 cubic yards. 

Excavating and grading, 132,000 cubic yards. 

Lawns sodded, 166,082 square yards. , 

Lawns plowed and seeded, 60 acres. 

Lincoln Park. 

This park, the beauty spot of the north Chi¬ 
cago lake shore, is perhaps the most frequented 
of the Chicago parks. For many years the neces¬ 
sity for an extension of its territory has been 
confronting the people of Chicago. The ques¬ 
tion was a difficult one to solve, because the park 
was surrounded on three sides by solidly-built 
residence portions of the city and on the fourth 


84 


by Lake Michigan. In 1894 it was decided to 
solve the problem by the reclamation of about 240 
acres of submerged lands at a cost of $1^000,000, 
and in this way nearly to double the area of the 
park. Before this project was well under way 
came the National and State elections of 1904, 
and it became a matter of serious speculation as 
to. what would be the fate of this Lincoln Park 
enterprise with the incoming of a new adminis¬ 
tration. The election of Governor Deneen, a citi¬ 
zen of Chicago, brought an administration which 
was in hearty accord with the work of park ex¬ 
tension and every assistance was furnished in the 
prosecution of the scheme by the new Governor, 

The reclaimed area begins near the end of Ful¬ 
lerton avenue and extends northward. At this 
point the lake shore has an inward curve extend¬ 
ing from Fullerton avenue to Diversey boulevard. 
In the bay thus formed is to be cpnstructed an 
island through which the present boulevard ex¬ 
tending along the lake shore in Lincoln Park will 
be extended northward to the north shore and 
hJheridan drive. 

Within the new area, in the section north and 
east of Diversey boulevard, playgrounds, tennis, 
courts, baseball grounds and picnic and other 
recreation grounds will be provided. Bathing 
places are to be established along the beach and 
u large yacht harbor built. 

Here, as in the West Park System, improve¬ 
ment is most marked and of the most extensive 
character. 

Both systems, moreover, have taken an active 
^rt in the movement for the creation of small 
parks, which has made so n’otable an advancement 
in recent years. With this movement Governor 
Deneen has been identified from the beginning, 
and to no man is due greater credit for the es¬ 
tablishment of these recreation grounds in the 
more crowded and populous sections of the city. 
The experience of Governor Deneen as State’s At¬ 
torney of Cook County brought vividly before 
him the unhealthful conditions prevailing in the 
more congested portions of Chicago, and no one 
was more familiar with the need of improve¬ 
ment along the lines which led to the creation 
of the small parks systems. These, as every Chi¬ 
cagoan knows, are now rapidly becoming among 
the pleasantest and most beneficial features jU>f 
recent civic improvement. 


85 


(1- ■ 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Railroad and Warehouse Commission. 

This department of the State Government is 
one of great importance, supervising as it does 
vested interests capitalized at more'than five and 
one-half billions of dollars. The present Board 
was appointed about eighteen months ago, since 
which time the business before the Commission 
has greatly increased, as is shown by the fact 
that since their appointment the present Com¬ 
missioners have heard and decided a larger num¬ 
ber of contested cases than were heard and de¬ 
cided by their predecessors during the period of 
six years. 

Early in the year 1902 a petition was filed with 
the Commission by the trafldc bureaus, business 
men’s associations and shippers of Quincy, Peoria, 
Bloomington, Springfield, Chicago and other places, 
representing that the ‘‘maximum rate of charges 
for the transportation of freight on the railroads 
of the State of Illinois is unequal, unjust and too 
high,” and asking that the rates be reduced. Noth¬ 
ing was done for the relief of the shippers until 
the year 1905, when, by direction of Governor 
Deneen, the Commission began an active investi¬ 
gation for the purpose of ascertaining Vhether 
or not the charge that the rates were unreasonably 
high was correct. An exhaustive examination was 
'' made of the rates charged by the railroads on 
thousands of items of traffic in the States of In¬ 
diana and Iowa as compared with the charge made 
on the same items in Illinois, and a report pub¬ 
lished for general distribution showing the result 
of such investigation and comparison. Many 
meetings of the Commission were held for the pur¬ 
pose of taking such evidence as was offered by 
the shippers and railroad companies, all of which 
were attended by the Governor. 

As a result of this vigorous action by Governor 
Deneen the Commission on January 1, 1906, is¬ 
sued a new schedule and classification of rates, 
reducing the rates on the merchandise classes 
(Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, including carload and less 
than carload lots) twenty per cent, and on July 1, , 
1906, an order was issued reducing the carload 
classes (Nos. 6 to 10, inclusive) and such com¬ 
modities as hay, grain, coal, salt, etc., on a gradu¬ 
ated scale, commencing at ten per cent on the 
short line mileage and merging into the old rates 
at about 175 miles, the former rates for greater 
mileage having been found satisfactory. 

That the rates thus established were just and 
equitable to the railroads as well as to the ship¬ 
pers is demonstrated by the fact that during the 
progress of the hearings the railroad companies 
voluntarily reduced the rates about nineteen pei* 
cent to Chicago shippers on a large number of 
commodities, and by the further fact that since 
such rates were made effective no complaint has 
been made to the Commission or to the courts 
questioning the justness of the rates thus estab¬ 
lished. 


se 




Among other innovations established by the 
present Commission is the practice of investigat¬ 
ing the cause of every accident resulting in the 
loss of life and the suggestion of such rules and 
practices as will tend to prevent their recurrence; 
the holding of stated public meetings for the pur¬ 
pose of hearing complaints as to rates and classi¬ 
fications and requests as to changes and the em¬ 
ployment of a Bate Clerk, whose duty it is to in¬ 
vestigate complaints and requests concerning rates 
and classifications. 

Under the ' provisions of the “Safety Appliance 
Law” the Commission during the year 1907 caused 
to be inspected 737 locomotive engines, 50 of which 
were found defective; 339 passenger(jcoaches, etc., 
26 being found defective, and 25,526 freight cars, 
1,920 of which were found defective. 

For the purpose of ascertaining the physical 
condition of the railroads operated in the State 
many of them have been inspected during the 
past year by the Commission and its Consulting 
Engineer. A permanent record of such inspection 
has been made, showdng in detail the condition 
of the rails, ties, roadbed, bridges, depots, rolling 
stock, etc., which will be valuable for purposes 
of comparison when future inspections are made. 
Inasmuch as no adequate record was kept of the 
last inspection made by the Commission some six 
or seven years ago, no data is at this time avail¬ 
able with which the present record may be com¬ 
pared. 

The main line mileage of steam railroads in the 
State is now 11,967 miles, an increase of 331 miles 
in the past two years. The main line mileage of 
electric interurban railroads is now 1,185 miles, 
an increase of 422 miles in the past two years. 
The new lines necessarily cross the old lines at 
many points, and, following its well defined policy 
to protect life and property, the Commission has 
consistently refused to permit such crossings to 
be made at grade where it is practicable and 
feasible to separate the grades by the construc¬ 
tion of subways or overhead structures. 

Notwithstanding the fact that during the past 
eighteen months many important decisions have 
been rendered by the Commission, among others, 
requiring the operation of passenger trains, re¬ 
quiring the fair distribution of cars to farmers’ 
elevators, requiring the making of only a reason¬ 
able charge for switching service, and requiring 
the separation or protection of grade crossings, 
not one of the decisions of the Commission has 
been challenged by an appeal to the courts or 
otherwise. 

At the suggestion of Governor Deneen, and after 
an exhaustive examination of the laws of other 
States, the Commission prepared and submitted 
to the last General Assembly bills: 

To prevent the fictitious increase or “watering” 
of railroad stocks; 

To prevent the giving of free passes by rail¬ 
road companies; and 

To increase the powers of the Commission re¬ 
garding railroad crossings. 


87 



CHAPTEB XXIX. 

Railroad and Warehouse Commission. 

This department of the State Government is 
one of great importance, supervising as it does 
vested interests capitalized at more* than five and 
one-half billions of dollars. The present Board 
was appointed about eighteen months ago, since 
which time the business before the Commission 
has greatly increased, as is shown by the fact 
that since their appointment the present Com¬ 
missioners have heard and decided a larger num¬ 
ber of contested cases than were heard and de¬ 
cided by their predecessors during the period of 
six years. 

Early in the year 1902 a petition was filed with 
the Commission by the trafi&c bureaus, business 
men’s associations and shippers of Quincy, Peoria, 
Bloomington, Springfield, Chicago and other places, 
representing that the ‘ ‘ maximum rate of charges 
for the transportation of freight on the railroads 
of the State of Illinois is unequal, unjust and too 
high,” and asking that the rates be reduced. Noth¬ 
ing was done for the relief of the shippers until 
the year 1905, when, by direction of Governor 
Deneen, the Commission began an active investi¬ 
gation for the purpose of ascertaining Vhether 
or not the charge that the rates were unreasonably 
high was correct. An exhaustive examination was 
^ made of the rates charged by the railroads on 
thousands of items of traffic in the States of In¬ 
diana and Iowa as compared with the charge made 
on the same items in, Illinois, and a report pub¬ 
lished for general distribution showing the result 
of such investigation and comparison. Many 
meetings of the Commission were held for the pur¬ 
pose of taking such e\ddence as was offered by 
the shippers and railroad companies, all of which 
were attended by the Governor. 

As a result of this vigorous action by Governor 
Deneen the Commission on January 1, 1906, is¬ 
sued a new schedule and classification of rates, 
reducing the rates on the merchandise classes 
(Nos. 1 to 5, inclusive, including carload and less 
than carload lots) twenty per cent, and on July 1, , 
1906, an order was issued reducing the carload 
classes (Nos. 6 to 10, inclusive) and such com¬ 
modities as hay, grain, coal, salt, etc., on a gradu¬ 
ated scale, commencing at ten per cent on the 
short line mileage and merging into the old rates 
at about 175 miles, the former rates for greater 
mileage having been found satisfactory. 

That the rates thus established were just and 
equitable to the railroads as well as to the ship¬ 
pers is demonstrated by the fact that during the 
progress of the hearings the railroad companies 
voluntarily reduced the rates about nineteen per 
cent to Chicago shippers on a large number of 
commodities, and by the further fact that since 
such rates were made effective no complaint has 
been made to the Commission or to the courts 
questioning the justness of the rates thus estab¬ 
lished. 


S6 


*1 


Among other innovations established by the 
present Commission is the practice of investigat¬ 
ing the cause of every accident resulting in the 
loss of life and the suggestion of such rules and 
practices as will tend to prevent their recurrence; 
the holding of stated public meetings for the pur¬ 
pose of hearing complaints as to rates and classi¬ 
fications and requests as to changes and the em¬ 
ployment of a Rate Clerk, whose duty it is to in¬ 
vestigate complaints and requests concerning rates 
and classifications. 

Under the provisions of the “Safety Appliance 
Law” the Commission during the year 1907 caused 
to be inspected 737 locomotive engines, 50 of which 
were found defective; 339 passenger poaches, etc., 
26 being found defective, and 25,526 freight ears, 
1,920 of which were found defective. 

For the purpose of ascertaining the physical 
condition of the railroads operated in the State 
many of them have been inspected during the 
past year by the Commission and its Consulting 
Engineer. A permanent record of such inspection 
has been made, showing in detail the condition 
of the rails, ties, roadbed, bridges, depots, rolling 
stock, etc., which will be valuable for purposes 
of comparison when future inspections are made. 
Inasmuch as no adequate record was kept of the 
last inspection made by the Commission some six 
or seven years ago, no data is at this time avail¬ 
able with which the present record may be com¬ 
pared. 

The main line mileage of steam railroads in the 
State is now 11,967 miles, an increase of 331 miles 
in the past two years. The main line mileage of 
electric interurban railroads is now 1,185 miles, 
an increase of 422 miles in the past two years. 
The new lines necessarily cross the old lines at 
many points, and, following its well defined policy 
to protect life and property, the Commission has 
consistently refused to permit such crossings to 
be made at grade where it is practicable and 
feasible to separate the grades by the construc¬ 
tion of subways or overhead structures. 

Notwithstanding the fact that during the past 
eighteen months many important decisions have 
been rendered by the Commission, among others, 
requiring the operation of passenger trains, re¬ 
quiring the fair distribution of cars to farmers’ 
elevators, requiring the making of only a reason¬ 
able charge for switching service, and requiring 
the separation or protection of grade crossings, 
not one of the decisions of the Commission has 
been challenged by an appeal to the courts or 
otherwise. 

At the suggestion of Governor Deneen, and after 
an exhaustive examination of the laws of other 
States, the Commission prepared and submitted 
to the last General Assembly bills: 

To prevent the fictitious increase or “watering” 
of railroad stocks; 

To prevent the giving of free passes by rail¬ 
road companies; and 

To increase the powers of the Commission re¬ 
garding railroad crossings. 


87 




some mere detail of his office a State officer has 
been obliged to pay to those whom he has em¬ 
ployed a greater compensation than he was himself 
receiving. 

Despite the manifest propriety of these meas¬ 
ures, Governor Yates has gone about the State in 
his political campaign describing them as a ‘‘sal¬ 
ary grab’^ and denouncing them as another 
example of extravagance. In this connection it 
would be well to call attention to the fact that 
during his own administration Governor Yates 
approved the bill increasing the salaries of the 
judges of the courts of Cook County from $7,000 
to $10,000 per year. After this increase the Gen- 
earl Assembly very properly increased the com¬ 
pensation of judges of the Supreme Court to the 
same figure. 

There is no just grounds for criticising the pres¬ 
ent salary increase, and it is difficult to believe 
that one who approved those formerly made can be 
sincere in his criticism of these measures. It is 
I)erfectly obvious that it is criticism made for 
political purposes only. 


CHAPTEE XXXII. 

Revenue Commission. 

The inequality of taxation resulting under the 
present revenue system of the State led to the 
recommendation in Governor Deneen’s biennial 
message of 1907 for the appointment of a Eevenue 
Commission. A number of other States had re¬ 
cently revised their revenue laws, while others had 
appointed commissions similar to the one recom¬ 
mended in the Governor’s message for the reforma¬ 
tion of their revenue systems. 

In accordance with the recommendations of the 
message, a bill was passed during the ensuing ses¬ 
sion of the General Assembly, providing for a Com- * 
mission to inquire into the subject of taxation for 
State and local purposes. Unfortunately, the pro¬ 
visions of the bill, requiring the appointment upon 
such Commission of members of the General As¬ 
sembly, were found to be unconstitutional. Solely 
upon these constitutional grounds it became neces¬ 
sary for Governor Deneen to veto this measure. 

Upon the reconvening of the General 4A.ssembly, 
however, the Governor submitted to them a 
message dealing with the policy of the Eevenue 
Commission legislation enacted at the previous ses¬ 
sion. In this connection the Governor said: 

The bill authorizing the appointment of a Com¬ 
mission to inquire into the subject of taxation for 
state and local purposes, which received the ap¬ 
proval of your honorable body, at its last session, I 
was reluctantly obliged to veto upon constitutional 
grounds. ^ As the General Assembly has already 
given this matter full considei’ation and approval 
and it remains only to authorize the appointment 
of a suitable commission, I again call it to your 
attention and suggest that action be taken at the 
present session, in order that the important work 


90 



of such Commission may be undertaken at once, so 
that a report may be ready for submission to the 
next session of the General Assembly. 

Notwithstanding the admitted evils of the pres¬ 
ent system and the necessity for the appointment 
of a Commission to enter upon the necessary work 
preliminary to its removal, and notwithstanding 
the merely formal character of legislative action 
necessary to secure the appointment of a com¬ 
mission, no action was taken by the General As¬ 
sembly upon Governor Deneen’s suggestion. 

Under the defective measure passed by the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly it was provided that the work of 
reformation should be: 

An investigation of the system of assessments 
and taxation for State and local purposes; a com¬ 
plete compilation of laws now in force in Illinois, 
bearing upon the subject of taxation; the hearing 
of complaints and obtaining information showing 
the inequalities of the present system; an inquiry 
into the systems of taxation in other States; and 
a report to the Governor on or before December 
1, 1908, and transmission by the Governor of 
drafts of bills embodying recommendations of the 
Commission to the General Assembly. 

The work of revising our revenue system must 
remain at a standstill until the General Assembly 
sees fit to enact the necessary legislation, as urged 
by Governor Deneen in the message referred to. 


CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

Governor Yates and the Party Platforms 
on the State Administration. 

The following comments were made on the pres¬ 
ent State administration by the platform adopted 
at the Eepublican convention held in Springfield 
on March 26 and at the Democratic convention 
held at the same place on April 23: 

Democratic Platform: “Our State administra¬ 
tion for nearly four years has been a compound 
of extravagance, favoritism to special interests and 
individuals, indifference to the public good and 
heartlessness unspeakable to the defenseless wards 
of the people housed'in our State institutions.^’ 

The campaign speeches delivered throughout the 
State by 

Governor Yates: “The State has had during 
the past few years the most extravagant admin¬ 
istration it ever had. It has not only been 
the most expensive, but the most extravagant.” 
“Never in the history of this State or of any other ® 
State has there been so much inhumanity as has 
occurred during the period since this alleged civil 
service law took effect.” 

Eepublican Platform: “We commend the excel¬ 
lent administration' of the State officers, all of 
whom are Eepublicans, and the present State ad- . 
ministration for the clean, businesslike, honest and 
efficient manner in which it has conducted the 




91 



executive business of the State, as shown by the 
present excellent condition of the State finances, 
the State institutions, and the various departments 
of the State government; and for the splendid 
manner in which it, assisted by a Eepublican 
General Assembly, has redeemed the pledges of the 
party platform in the passage of: 

‘ ‘ The Primary Election Law. 

‘ ‘ The Civil Service Law. 

‘ ‘ The law requiring State treasurers to turn into 
the State treasury interest on public funds. 

‘ ‘ The legislation revising and improving the 
State insurance laws. 

‘ ‘ The law fixing a two-cent passenger rate. 

‘ ‘ The securing of a substantial reduction in. 
freight rates. 

‘ ‘ The laws concerning the construction of a deep 
Avaterway. 

“The law creating the Internal Improvement 
Commission. 

‘ ‘ The law creating the Stale Highway Commis¬ 
sion. 

“The law creating the Geological Survey Com¬ 
mission, and other important legislative matters.’^ 

Not a word has been said by Governor Yates 
during his present campaign about the splendid 
legislative and administrative record of the pres¬ 
ent State administration, of which so many excel¬ 
lent features are specifically set forth in the Ee- 
publican platform. He has pursued an unvarying 
course of attack and abuse of that administration. 
In this respect his utterances cannot be dis¬ 
tinguished from the State administration plank of 
the Democratic platform. This is a dangerous 
course for a Eepublican candidate and a direct 
invitation to party disaster. 

Governor Yates’ utterances have placed him in 
an awkward position as a party candidate. It is 
manifest that should Governor Deneen receive a 
renomination, Governor Yates could not support 
him, and could not support him because he can¬ 
not stand on the party platform. Should Gov¬ 
ernor Yates himself receive the nomination it is 
difficult to see upon what platform he would con¬ 
duct his campaign. He has already repudiated the 
work of the present Eepublican State administra¬ 
tion, which the party platform endorses and many 
important features of which are specifically set 
forth therein. What sort of Eepublican platform 
could be framed, which would be at once con¬ 
sistent with Governor Yates’ present political 
speeches and distinguishable from the platform of 
the Democratic party? 



BIOGRAPHY. 

Charles Samuel Deneen was born May 4, 1863, 
at Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois. He 
was brought up at Lebanon, St. Clair County, 
Illinois. He comes from one of the oldest families 
in the State. 

His great grandfather, Eisdon Moore, a native 
of Delaware, came to St. Clair County, Illinois, 
from Georgia in 1812. He was a soldier in the 
Eevolutionary War. Mr. Moore left Georgia on 
account of his hostility to slavery. He brought 
with him to Illinois all his slaves and at once gave 
them their freedom. He was Speaker of the 
Illinois House of Representatives in the Territorial 
Legislature in 1814 and was a member of the first, 
third and fourth Legislatures of this State. 

In the Legislature of 1823 he was one of the 
most active men in opposing the calling of a con¬ 
stitutional convention for the purpose of changing 
the constitution and making Illinois a slave State. 
He was one of the two men who signed a minority 
report which opposed the calling of this convention 
and demanded the total abolition of slavery at 
that early date. Because of this, on his return 
from the Legislature, he was burned in effigy at 
Troy, Madison County, but in the following elec¬ 
tion was again chosen after a bitter contest as a 
Free State member of the Legislature. 

Mr. Deneen ^s grandfather. Rev. William L. 
Deneen, was born at Bedford, Bedford County, 
Pennsylvania, October 30, 1798. He came to 
Illinois in 1828 and for 19 years thereafter was a 
Methodist minister in Southern Illinois. On ac¬ 
count of a severe illness he was obliged in 1847 
to abandon public speaking and engaged in the 
business of surveying land, which he pursued at. 
the time of his death in 1879. He was county 
surveyor of St. Clair County 1849-1851 and again 
1853 to 1855. 

Mr. Deneen’s father, Samuel H. Deneen, was 
born near Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois, 
December 20, 1835. He was brought up at 
Lebanon, where he graduated from McKendree 
College, and where he was afterwards professor 
of Latin and ancient and mediEeval history for 
thirty years. He was adjutant of the 117th 
Illinois Volunteers during the Civil War and was 
United States Consul at Belleville, Ontario, under 
President Harrison. 

Mr. Deneen ^8 mother, Mary Frances Ashley, 

93 


comes of one of the oldest families of Lebanon, 
where she was born. Her father was Hiram K. 
Ashley of that place. Mrs. Deneen, Sr., was edu¬ 
cated at the Illinois Woman ^s College at Jackson¬ 
ville, Illinois, and the Cincinnati Wesleyan Female 
College at Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Mr. Deneen married Miss Bina Day Maloney, 
of Mt. Carroll, Carroll County, Illinois, May 10, 
1891. Mrs. Deneen was educated at the Frances 
A. Schimer Academy at Mt. Carroll. Mr. and 
Mrs. Deneen have four children—one son, Charles 
Ashley, and three daughters, Dorothy, Frances 
and Bina. 

Mr. and Mrs. Deneen attend the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

The subject of this sketch was educated in the 
public schools at Lebanon and at MeKendree Col¬ 
lege, from w'hich he graduated in the classical 
course-in 1882 and law course in 1885. During 
his study of law he also taught for three terms in 
the country schools—one near Newton, Jasper 
County, this State, and two near Godfrey, Madison 
County, this State. Mr. Deneen is now one of the 
trustees of MeKendree College and represents the 
fourth generation of the Deneen family to act as 
trustee of that institution. 

Mr. Deneen came to Chicago in 1885 to complete 
his law studies. He attended the Union College 
of Law, now Northwestern Law School, for ten 
weeks, and, unable to complete his course on ac¬ 
count of lack of funds, went to St. Paul, Minne¬ 
sota, where he clerked in a law office for nine 
months. 

Eeturning to Chicago in September, 1886, he 
secured a position in the evening schools and for 
four years taught in the school at Polk and 
Halsted streets. 

Mr. Deneen was elected a member of the Illinois 
Legislature in 1892. In 1895 he was elected attor¬ 
ney for the Sanitary District Board, resigning 
from the office on being nominated for State’s At¬ 
torney of Cook County in 1896. He was elected 
State’s Attorney of Cook County in 1896 and 
again in 1900, at the latter election receiving a 
majority over his opponent 10,000 greater than 
President McKinley received over Bryan. 

During his term of office ae State’s Attorney 
he was called upon to prosecute many important 
eases, some of which attracted national attention. 
Among the important cases prosecuted during his 
term of office were the following: 


Adolph Luetgert, Emil Rollinger, August Becker, 
Christ Merry and Michael Synon, wife murders. 

Theodore Schintz, lawyer and real estate broker. 

George A. Weimer, supervisor of Lemont. 

William S. Young, public guardian. 

M. P. Kossakowski, American Express Company 
agent, embezzler. 

Anton Boenert, steamship agent and broker. 

Charles J. Allardt, and other ticket brokers for 
forging railroad tickets. 

The election judges, Ferris and Hanrahan of the 
17th Ward, and Alderman John J. Brennan of the 
18th Ward, for violating the election laws. 

The cases against the Board of Cook County Civil 
Service Commissioners for violating the civil ser- 


f-: 


X 


94 




vice law, resulting in their removal and conviction.* 

And the following bankers: 

George W. Spalding, president of the Globe Sav¬ 
ings Bank and treasurer of the State University. 

Edward S. Dreyer, treasurer of the West Chicago 
Park Commissioners. 

Robert Berger, of the banking firm of E. S. 
Dreyer & Co. 

William A. Paulsen, president Central Trust & 
Savings Bank. 

George L. Magill, proprietor of the Avenue Sav¬ 
ings Bank, and Adolph Kuhn, private banker. 

(The amount involved in these several misap¬ 
propriations and failures was upward of three mil¬ 
lion dollars.) 

And the following cases of conspiracy: 

Alexander Sullivan, and others, to obstruct pub¬ 
lic justice in keeping an indicted jury briber away 
from the jurisdiction of the court. 

The Gallagher-O’Donnell & Brady case to fix 
juries. 

The Dr. Unger-Marie Deffenbach case to defraud 
the Independent Order of Foresters. 

The Dr. Regent-Delia Mahoney case to defraud 
the Knights and Ladies of Security. 

The case of Barney Graff, and others, to defraud 
the Rochester Fire Insurance Company. 

The Weber & Kanter case, known as the loan 
shark case, for conspiracy to defeat the city civil 
service law. 

The “Coal Cases,” for conspiracy to raise the 
price of coal and to restrict competition among 
dealers. 

The Masonic Temple tax-fixing cases. 

The case of Policemen Tedford and Davis and 
L^awyer Dudenhaver, to obstruct public justice by 
keeping witnesses away from the jurisdiction of 
the court. Also: 

The cases against Policemen Sheehan and 
Mosher for robbery and Policeman Patrick Ma¬ 
honey and others for burglary. And 

The cases resulting in the conviction of what 
were generally known as “The Maxwell Street 
Gang,” “The Weir Gang,” the “Shevlin Gang,” the 
“Market Street Gang” and the Schrage bond rob¬ 
bery case. 

Bank officials, church officials, business men, cor¬ 
poration agents, lawyers, physicians, public officials 
and professional law breakers have all been prose¬ 
cuted without discrimination or regard to station, 
position or personal influence. Eleven attorneys 
were convicted in one year. Straw bailers, profes¬ 
sional jury bribers, fraudulent institutions for de¬ 
priving the ignorant and unwary of their small 
earnings, organized bands to plunder insurance 
•companies, bucket shops, pool rooms, gangs of rob¬ 
bers and burglars have been successfully prose¬ 
cuted and broken up. 

On assuming the duties of State’s Attorney, 
December 6, 1896, he made the following state¬ 
ment, which was published at the time in the local 
press: 

I mean that the State’s Attorney’s office shall be 
conducted according to the law. The indicted man 
against w'hom there is sufficient evidence to war¬ 
rant a belief in his guilt under the law, will be 
tried no matter what his social position, religion, 
politics Or color. If unc^r suspicious circumstances 
the jury disagrees he will be tried again as quickly 
as possible. The office will not be used as a cloak 
to enable dishonest grand jurors to blackmail cit¬ 
izens or criminals. The criminal with infiuence 
and friends will be prosecuted with greater vigor 
than the one who is penniless and friendless.* The 
nolle prosequi will not be used for building up po¬ 
litical influence or for favoring friends at the ex¬ 
pense of justice, and will be entered in open court 


95 


and with a full statement before everybody of the 
reason therefor. The worthless professional bonds¬ 
man and the straw-bailer will be promptly prose¬ 
cuted. This is the way in which I hope to conduct 
this office, which should represent fairness, justice, 
honesty and mercy in all its transactions. 

The records of his two administrations show 
that the policy above outlined was faithfully car¬ 
ried out. 

Mr. Deneen was nominated for Governor at the 
Eepublican State Convention on June 3, 1904. 
During his campaign he visited every county in 
the State. At the election he received a larger 
vote than Theodore Boosevelt and the largest vote 
ever east for any candidate for office in this State. 

The important facts connected with his admin¬ 
istration of the Governor’s office appear in this 
pamphlet. 

Charles S. Deneen Campaign Committee, 

Booms 201-203 Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. 







Republican Platform 

We commend the excellent administration 
of the State officers, all of whom are Re¬ 
publicans, and the present State administra¬ 
tion for the clean, businesslike, honest and 
efficient manner in which it has conducted 
the executive business of the State, as shown 
by the present excellent condition of the 
State finances, the State institutions, and 
the various departments of the State govern¬ 
ment; and for the splendid manner in which 
it, assisted by a Republican General Assem¬ 
bly, has redeemed the pledges of the party 
platform in the passage of: 

The Primary Election Law. 

The Civil Service Law. 

The law requiring State Treasurers to turn 
into the State Treasury interest on public 
funds. 

The legislation revising and improving the 
State insurance laws. 

The law fixing a two-cent passenger rate. 

The securing of a substantial reduction in 
freight rates. 

The laws concerning the construction of a 
deep waterway. 

The law creating the Internal Improvement 
Commission. 

The law creating the State Highway Com¬ 
mission. 

The law creating the Geological Survey 
Commission, and other important legislative 
matters. 






